


Blackguard

by water_lili_es



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Fluff, M/M, Mentioned Stray Kids Ensemble, Romantic Fluff, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:13:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 36
Words: 52,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24177199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/water_lili_es/pseuds/water_lili_es
Summary: Tempo takes a step back, irritated at not knowing the game that the boy was playing. “What do you want?”“I just want to play, darling.” he laughed, going back to sit on the ledge, but facing Tempo. He tilted his head to the side, the mischievous glint in his eyes studying Tempo meticulously. “I won’t cause you any trouble, don’t worry.”“Why do I feel like you spell trouble?” he asked, barely above a whisper, but Haze heard it all the same, thanks to the lack of any outside noise whatsoever.“I can be trouble if I want to be.” he winked behind his volto mask, and Tempo could feel his blood want to boil, but for some reason was unable to. Haze laughed, summoning a dark cloud to reign over them.
Relationships: Hwang Hyunjin/Kim Seungmin
Comments: 123
Kudos: 208





	1. Chapter 1

The city was bursting with life, lights shining from every corner and every street and people going to and fro as they lived their life the way they should. The moon was high in the sky, a pale yellow cheshire smile on an ink black surface, stars winking with the secrets of the world.

Seungmin ran, the night wind slapping his face as he jumped from rooftop-to-rooftop. He was out on his nightly patrol as Tempo, passing by a handful of other heroes out for the same purpose. He'd recognize one or two, stop by to chat with them, share a moment of witty banter, before tipping their heads in opposite directions and running off again.

He’s been a superhero for almost two years now, and spending nights jumping across rooftops weren’t unusual for him anymore. He couldn’t fly, but his jumps were high enough and reached far enough for him to go from building-to-building with ease. He remembered when he first joined the superhero scene, when Shift was always with him as guidance, and he'd giggle every three or four buildings from the adrenaline pumping through his veins.

Ah, maybe he should go on a patrol with Shift soon. Maybe tonight, if he managed to pester him enough.

With that thought in mind, Tempo smirks, ready to head to the apartment building that housed his friend.

He stops, however, when he sees a figure standing a couple of rooftops away. The figure was still, standing on the edge of the rooftop as he watched over the city. The figure was still, like he was engrossed in the scene before him, like he was seeing it through a whole new angle. He was clothed in black, and Tempo would almost have mistaken the figure as his mentor if not for the pure white mask on the figure’s face.

Engrossed in the scene before him, like he was seeing it through a whole new angle.

Giggle every three or four building from the adrenaline pumping through his veins.

Tempo’s brows furrow under his colombina mask, taking a step back for leverage before jumping the remaining distance until they were only one rooftop away.

Before he could jump, though, the figure turns, and a mysterious smile graces the man’s lips.

“Tempo,” the name slurs from the man’s tongue like honey, almost causing shivers to run down Tempo’s spine. “fancy seeing you here.”

Not a man, a boy. He looked not much older than him, and if the sparkling light in his eyes were anything to go by, Tempo was sure they were at least the same age, if he wasn't younger than the stranger.

“Who are you?” he asks, voice authoritative and demanding, a tone he rarely used when he was his civilian self. Something about the way his eyes glimmered under the moonlight made alarms go off in the far back of Tempo's mind, too far for him to be distracted by the noise but near enough that he couldn't ignore the blaring.

The man takes a step forward, and even through the dark night, he could see the spark of amusement in the man’s eyes behind his white mask. With every move he made, the black silk he wore swayed with the movement, almost as if dancing against his skin.

Tempo’s breath hitches in his throat for a reason he couldn’t place. That one step was enough to take his breath away, and that nerved him. This man smelled like trouble, Tempo was almost sure of it.

The boy chuckles, the sound reaching Tempo’s ears despite their distance and the noise of the city below them.

“Wouldn’t you want to know?” the boy mused. With a slight tilt of his head, he smirked. “Don’t worry, Tempo, I won’t do you any harm.”

There was a softness in his voice, a sort of familiarity that Tempo would never hear from anyone aside from Shift, and even then, there was an amusement masking this man's familiarity, a curiosity that made Tempo want to rush over to where he was and pull the mask off his face.

“Not yet, at least.” he slurred, and Tempo’s ears twitched at the sound of his laugh. It was captivating, but at the same time it made Tempo anxious with the words he spoke.

And Tempo understood, suddenly racking his brain for any recent major accidents to at least guess what his powers were. It was obvious that this man wasn’t an ordinary person, that this man had powers of his own, and with the way he spoke, he might be powerful. The way he _stood_ told Tempo as much, with the grace and poise of a person who practiced their powers to perfection.

But no, there weren’t any major accidents as of late. So was he born with his powers? A secret organization? An accident that wasn’t reported at all?

Tempo scoffed. “Would you at least tell me where you came from?”

The smirk on the boy’s face grows, tilting his head to the side as if he was teasing. There was a lull in his voice, bordering on a giggle. “Whatever do you mean?”

Tempo doesn’t answer, suddenly too absorbed in trying to decipher the boy. He radiated mischievous energy, nothing too sinister, but he could never be too sure.

The boy takes a step forward, jumping off the ledge with ease. Tempo takes a step back when he sees the boy fly from the rooftop he was on to meters away from where he stood. Tempo could swear that there was a hint of a laugh on the tip of the boy's tongue. Adrenaline pumping through his veins.

“You can fly.” he noted.

“Not really.” the boy breathed out as he looked around the rooftop. His hands were kept behind his back as he studied their surroundings, corners of his lips never falling from the slight smile that may or may not be plastered on his face as a permanent fixture. Tempo followed his gaze when he realized that the boy’s eyes fixed on something behind him.

He turns, just in time for a pole to lift itself from its place on the floor and come flying at him.

“Shit!” Tempo cursed under his breath, lifting an arm in reflex. A translucent violet disk as big as the cover of a manhole appeared out of nowhere in front of Tempo, colliding with the pole instead.

 _Telekinisis_. the hero thinks as the pole falls to the ground, once again lifeless.

“Nice.” the boy chuckled, clearly amused. If he intended to hurt him at all, Tempo wasn't sure.

Tempo once again turns to him, lips curled in annoyance. “You wanna play?”

He takes a step back, smirk still intact. “Not yet. But maybe soon.”

Before Tempo could even question the remark, he’s engulfed in a cloud of darkness, impairing his vision.

 _Shadow manipulation, too._ he thought as he tried to find a way out of the darkness without taking steps away from where he stood. Who knows where he’ll end up if he moved.

“My name is Haze, by the way. I’ll see you soon.”

The cloud of darkness disperses as if it wasn’t there at all, and just like that, Haze was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading! there won't be a lot of superhero/villain action here, just a lot a lot a LOT of fluff, so if you're looking forward to some punching and kicking and all that jazz then i'm sorry but you won't find it here hehe ㅠㅠ but i do hope that you enjoy the story still!!!


	2. Chapter 2

The sound of the school bell ringing sounds through the hallways, alarming the loitering students that the first class for the day was to start in five minutes. The students file inside their classrooms just as Seungmin runs inside the school gates, hair mussed in unbrushed strands and chest heaving slightly from running from where the bus dropped him at the bus stop.

He was up late the previous night, trying to find a clue as to what Haze was up to, but any evidence of his presence was gone as if he was never there at all. Seungmin didn't even know what he was trying to find out, or how he was going to do so at all; it's not like Haze left a calling card or something.

He didn't. He checked.

Seungmin almost believed that Haze wasn’t there at all, if not for the pole that lay not even two meters away from his feet.

The mischievous glint in the boy’s eyes visited Seungmin in his dreams, the sound of the boy’s laugh ringing in his ears even as he woke up. He wasn’t sure if he preferred to call it as the boy haunting his dreams or simply visiting it, but either way, Seungmin didn’t miss the irregular beating of his heart when his eyes opened, nor the flashing alarms at the back of his mind, taunting him but not enough for him to know why.

His appearance was out of nowhere, but for some reason, Seungmin was sure that something triggered it. Superhumans didn’t just show up out of nowhere and without a motive. He would now. He didn't just _decide_ to be a superhero, he was perfectly content with playing with his shields in peace until an older friend of his decided that he wanted someone to jump across rooftops with. Seungmin will never admit that the kitty cat eyes worked.

Haze was up to something, he was after something. Seungmin was going to find out no matter what.

Seungmin barges inside his classroom, sighing in relief to see that their teacher was still not inside., then mentally slaps himself for forgetting that he had all the time in the world if he chose to.

It's not like he used that power often, anyway.

He glances around the considerably rowdy classroom, trying to spot his friend. He doesn’t find Felix, but he does lock eyes with the boy seated at the very back, looking at him with a watchful gaze.

The corner of Hwang Hyunjin’s lips cock upwards when he locks eyes with Kim Seungmin.

Seungmin’s big brown eyes were confused as they looked back at Hyunjin’s almost teasing ones. Hyunjin looked as if he wanted to approach Seungmin, and as much as Seungmin wanted to say that it was a first, he knew that he’s caught Hyunjin’s attention once or twice before.

He didn’t want it. He was too busy struggling between being Seungmin and being Tempo to add another thing to his plate. He was friendly with Hyunjin, sure. He was friends with Changbin, and Changbin was dating Felix, Seungmin’s best friend. Their paths were bound to cross every now and then.

Okay, maybe he appreciated the attention, but he wouldn't admit that, either.

“Seungmin!” an arm drapes itself across Seungmin’s shoulders as the boy is pushed further inside the classroom by Felix, who has also just gotten to school.

Seungmin whines at the extra weight, taking Felix’s arm off him. Felix’s entrance broke Seungmin and Hyunjin’s eye contact, and no one was able to see how Hyunjin shook his head and chuckled before going back to looking outside of the window. Seungmin glances back at Hyunjin, however, and sees the boy seated by the window gazing outside, the early morning sun making the basketball player’s skin light up with a soft glow.

It wasn’t a mystery as to why so many people looked up to Hyunjin. A star athlete with stellar looks and amazing grades. His personality wasn’t too bad, either, if not a little cocky, but he deserved his inflated ego, especially since he’s proved time and time again that he knew how to deflate it himself. He was sweet, if he wanted to be, and wasn't annoying despite being a little too sassy every now and then. He was just Hyunjin.

“Lucky you’re not late.” Seungmin notes as he and Felix move to their seats in the middle of the classroom. “Let me guess, breakfast with Changbin?”

Felix beams, laughing softly. “Of course.”

Seungmin shakes his head, chuckling softly. The closest thing Felix had to a double life was going between being the faculty’s prince and playing delinquent with his boyfriend. It was endearing, how Changbin wasn’t one to break rules himself, but for some reason, he and Felix wouldn’t mind a few detentions if it meant a little more time together.

And here Seungmin was, juggling academics and being vice president of the photography club, as well as a hidden life as Tempo. It’s a wonder that Seungmin still had time to breathe, but that was thanks to his mentor, Shift, who always had Seungmin’s back.

“Do you want to hang out with us later?” Felix asked with a bright grin. “Changbin wants to go to the pizza parlor for milkshakes. He’s inviting Hyunjin and Jeongin, too.”

Seungmin shrugged, taking out the things he would need for class. “I don’t see why not.”

Felix smiled even brighter. “Good! No disappearing, you got it?”

But leading two identities doesn't come without a price. Seungmin would obviously disappear often with no explanation, and his friends have learned to roll with it after a few months, deciding that whatever Seungmin is up to isn't harming him if their friend still managed to smile and tease them like always. And for them, as long as Seungmin was safe and happy, they wouldn't pry.

Seungmin laughed at his friend, shrugging again. “No promises.”

The teacher enters the room, and Seungmin feels a pair of eyes fixed on him as the class settles down to start the lesson. He turns, locking eyes once again with Hyunjin. The corner of Hyunjin’s lips once again tug upwards when Seungmin turns to him. It was a smirk, but not quite.

He winks at Seungmin, watching as the boy furrows his brows at him and turns back to the teacher who was just about to start the discussion.


	3. Chapter 3

Lunch time rolled around, and of course Seungmin and Felix sat with Changbin, Hyunjin, and Jeongin. Among the other three, Seungmin was closest with Jeongin. The younger was just too adorable for him not to coo whenever he did the slightest things. Sure, he was a pain in the ass sometimes but that justified the slightly harder than should be pinches that Seungmin would give his cheeks.

“Seungmin, hey, I’m sorry to disturb you during lunch,” Jisung smiled apologetically at Seungmin as he approached the table. Seungmin knew that look. “but I need your help looking over some portfolios.”

Hyunjin raised a brow at the younger. Jisung and Seungmin always had a rather strange relationship. They didn’t seem very close with each other, but they seemed as if they knew each other enough. Like they knew each other outside of club responsibilities despite seeming like the most they interact with each other is because of it.

Of course, only Hyunjin has noticed this. He notices even the smallest things about Seungmin, initially against his own will, but he learned to live with his oversensitivity to anything and everything Kim Seungmin. To anyone else, Seungmin and Jisung just looked like close friends that bonded over the photography club.

But no, the look in Jisung’s eyes was innocent but sharp. And Seungmin quickly understood the tone of his eyes without even needing to hear the tone of his voice.

Seungmin smiled brightly, his eyes turning into half-moons as he did so. “No, no, it’s fine. Let me just clean up.”

“Go.” Felix sighed, handing Seungmin his water bottle. “I’ll clean up for you.”

Seungmin nodded, and he and Jisung ran off to the cafeteria. Felix rolled his eyes good-naturedly, muttering something about how the two were over-invested in their club as he cleaned up his friend's rubbish.

Hyunjin tilted his head to the side as he watched the two sprint off.

“Don’t you think that they’re in a bit of a rush for looking over some portfolios?” Hyunjin noted as his eyes stayed locked on the cafeteria doors where the two had disappeared behind.

Jeongin chuckled, shrugging. “We only have at least half an hour left for lunch. Maybe they just want to finish early.”

“Maybe.” Hyunjin breathed out in lieu of a scoff, continuing with his lunch.

Seungmin and Jisung ran past the photography club’s room, going straight up the stairs.

“Where am I going?” Seungmin asked as the two boys sprinted up the stairs to the rooftop whilst he shrugged his school-issued blazer off his shoulders.

“To the bank. There’s a hostage situation going on there.” Jisung informed just as he opened the rooftop’s door and let Seungmin run in first. When Jisung stepped inside the rooftop, Seungmin had already stripped off his uniform, revealing the violet polyester-latex suit he wore underneath.

“If I’m not back by lunch, tell Felix I got sick and went to the infirmary.” Tempo instructed as he put on his mask, glancing at Jisung who nodded.

“Copy.” Jisung answered as he caught the water bottle that Tempo threw his way.

Seungmin nodded as well, running to the edge of the rooftop and jumping off the edge, landing perfectly on the cemented floor and making a run for it.

He couldn’t fly; he couldn’t run fast, either. His powers were his impenetrable skin, shields, and time manipulation. But with enough training, he was nimble and flexible enough to jump and dodge through his path and get to the bank in record time.

When he gets there, he spots no more than fifteen hostages, all forced to the ground by four masked strangers. He sees Shift in the middle of combat with two of the hostage-takers, and one aiming a gun at him from behind.

The criminal shoots, and Tempo acts fast, summoning a violet disk to collide with the bullet instead of hitting Shift.

Even without Shift’s heightened senses, the older hero turns towards Tempo’s direction, the violet disk being a dead giveaway of his presence. He smirks, shifting into a black cat and strutting his way towards Tempo before shifting back into his original form.

“Took you long enough.” his mentor noted with a faux yawn.

Tempo snickered, eyeing the four hostage-takers. They were aiming at them, waiting for them to attack first. “I’m sorry if I was busy having lunch.”

“I’ll feed you after this, let’s make it quick.” Shift rolled his shoulder back, his charming smirk still intact on his face. His black colombina mask matching almost perfectly with Tempo’s violet one.

“Deal.” Tempo laughed as he and Shift took a step forward simultaneously, taking two criminals each. They had guns, but with Tempo’s unbreakable skin, he wasn’t fazed by the bullets just falling harmlessly from his skin, and with Shift’s heightened senses, he could dodge the bullets even before they were shot.

Tempo could almost laugh at how much adrenaline was coursing through his veins, but he's learned to suppress those urges after the first several times that Shift had yelled at him to _'stop laughing your ass off and kick some ass!'_

“Tempo!” Shift called as he switched from a dragonfly and back to his human form, picking a discarded weapon and quickly flinging it at the younger.

Tempo turns, easily catching the gun that was being thrown his way. They have successfully disarmed the hostage-takers, two of them knocked out from the fight with the other two on their knees, hands in the air in surrender.

They were over and done with it in fifteen minutes, taking another extra half hour in calming the civilians and making sure that they were okay and unharmed. Seungmin was already late, anyway, might as well make sure that everything was well and okay before he left. Besides, Shift promised food.

“We’re glad you’re all safe.” Shift smiled at them once they weren’t as shaken as before and that the authorities were already willing to let them go.

Tempo stuck his bottom lip out at his mentor, silently challenging the older to go back on his word.

Shift raised a brow at the younger hero, placing his palm on Tempo’s head and pushing the younger down as he ruffled his hair. “Come on, kid. Let’s get you lunch.”

“You’re not much older than me.” Tempo remarked as he swatted Shift’s hand away, standing properly to playfully scowl at the older, receiving a punch on the shoulder in return.

“I’m feeding you, shut up.”


	4. Chapter 4

With five minutes until lunch came to a close and the knowledge that Seungmin's uniform was still stuffed inside his locker, Jisung went to look for anyone from Seungmin's circle of friends, a lie already on the tip of his tongue and waiting to roll out of it.

“Felix!” Jisung called to the younger just as he entered the classroom. Felix and Hyunjin turned to his direction, having been returning to class together. Hyunjin cocked a brow at the sight of Jisung, already knowing the gist of what he was going to say when he saw no trace of Seungmin near him.

Felix smiled at Jisung, waiting for him to reach them before speaking. “Hey, what’s up? Where’s Seungmin?”

“I came to tell you that he caught a stomache bug.” Jisung said, panting softly from his mini run. “I brought him to the infirmary, so he’ll probably stay there for a little while.”

Felix’s brows instantly furrow, worry lacing his voice. “Oh, no. Is he okay? I should go check on him.”

Jisung’s eyes widened by a fraction, almost expecting the reaction. “No! No, it’s fine. He fell asleep, so you probably shouldn’t disturb him.”

Felix could only nod, knowing that Seungmin was prone to feeling bad, anyway. No matter how many times Felix had convinced Seungmin to go have himself checked-up (which wasn't a lot of time, unsurprisingly), Felix and Seungmin always walked out of the hospital with the confirmation that Seungmin is perfectly healthy with nothing wrong with him whatsoever. “If you say so. Thank you for telling me.”

Jisung nodded with a polite smile, patting Felix’s shoulder in a final attempt to tell him not to worry about Seungmin before running off to his own class.

Hyunjin’s eyes followed Jisung in slight suspicion.

“Hyunjin, let’s go.” Felix tugged on Hyunjin’s arm, beckoning the taller inside their classroom.

Hyunjin turned to Felix and gave the boy a small smile. “I want to check on Seungmin.”

“Jisung said he was asleep. Let’s not wake him.” Felix told him. Hyunjin realized that if he would check on Seungmin now, Felix would want to follow him, so he decided to wait for a bit before going to the infirmary.

“Okay.” he answered and let Felix drag him inside the classroom.

* * *

Tempo and Shift were seated atop a random rooftop, having their fast-food lunch. They’d have changed and went inside a restaurant like normal people, but both of them left their clothes in school when they set out to the bank; which left Shift to turn into a motorcycle and Tempo to sit pretty as Shift drove them to a drive-thru. The look on the employee's face made both of them laugh, especially once Tempo explained Shift's whereabouts.

They perch themselves on a nearby rooftop after that, with Shift whining about the loss of his spare pocket money kept in his suit's pocket. Tempo rolled his eyes at the older as he sunk his teeth into a burger before threatening to eat all the fries if Shift didn't stop complaining. It wasn’t an unusual sight to see Tempo and Shift lounging around anyway, so they weren’t in a hurry to return to their classes.

“Jisung pull you out?” Shift asked as he munched on his burger.

Tempo nodded, chewing on a couple of fries. “Told me we had some things to look over for club.”

Shift smiled the type of fond that was almost offending and nodded.

Tempo glanced at Shift, somehow thankful that the older makes this life have a touch of normalcy for him. This was their normal, though, he knew that, but he liked that whenever Shift and Tempo were together, they could have moments like this where they could just talk and laze around.

Tempo glanced behind Shift when he noticed some movement. And there he was, standing a few rooftops away from where they were, was Haze. He was seated on the ledge, watching the cars pass by below him. He was clothed in the same black silk and white mask, his figure looking clearer in the daylight.

Tempo felt a breath catch in his throat as he took in the sight of the boy, reminding himself that he did not run into an illusion last night, because here Haze was, in broad daylight, sitting pretty on a ledge with a smirk that Tempo could still see despite the rooftops between them and a sparkle in his eyes that was there despite the lack of darkness to accentuate it.

Time froze as Tempo’s eyes fixated on the white-masked boy.

Haze’s brows furrowed, realizing that all the noise from the city stopped, all movement above and below and around him paused. For a moment, he looked panicked, as he tried to find an explanation for why everything and everyone but him stood still.

He looked around, locking eyes with Tempo who has just stood up, leaving a frozen Shift behind as he jumped over to where Haze was seated. He watched Tempo move, relieved that he wasn't the only one that slipped through time's fingers, therefore, the explanation that he was looking for came in the form of a purple-clad superhero.

Haze smiled mysteriously at the hero. Now that they were in front of each other, any trace of fear and confusion and relief was wiped from Haze's features, leaving the mischief and amusement that dance effortlessly in his expressions. “Ah, Tempo. I was wondering when you’d notice my presence.”

“Haze.” it was the first time that he spoke the name. It sounded foreign to his ears and to his tongue, but something told Tempo that he would be speaking this name more from now on.

The other breathed out a smile, standing to his feet. “I was worried you didn’t hear my name last night.”

Out in the daylight, Tempo looked every bit of the hero that he was. Shift took in Tempo's presence, finding it more fulfilling to stand so near to him instead of seeing him hop from stories high off the ground like he usually did.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, still unsure of the boy’s intentions.

Haze shrugged as he walked around Tempo. “I heard that there was a hostage taking, and Shift and Tempo were there to save the day. I thought that maybe you haven’t strayed far from the bank.”

By this time, Haze was already in front of Tempo. The boy smirked, lifting his hand to tap Tempo’s nose. “And I was right.”

He could feel the tip of his nose warm up from the small touch, which fueled his irritation even more. He didn't like the smirk Haze was wearing, it was taunting him, telling him that he knew exactly what he was doing to Tempo when he himself had no idea at all.

Tempo takes a step back, irritated at not knowing the game that the boy was playing. “What do you want?”

“I just want to play, darling.” he laughed, going back to sit on the ledge, but facing Tempo. He tilted his head to the side, the mischievous glint in his eyes studying Tempo meticulously. “I won’t cause you any trouble, don’t worry.”

“Why do I feel like you spell trouble?” he asked, barely above a whisper, but Haze heard it all the same, thanks to the lack of any outside noise whatsoever.

“I can be trouble if I want to be.” he winked behind his volto mask, and Tempo could feel his blood want to boil, but for some reason was unable to. Haze laughed, summoning a dark cloud to reign over them.

“Stop.” Tempo commanded, knowing that he was planning to pull a stunt like last night. His heart hammered in his chest at the slight fear of Haze hurting him. He hasn't tried anything aside from flinging a pole at him, but there was still the possibility of Haze wanting to catch him off-guard.

“Oh?” Haze taunted as the cloud dispersed. “You don’t like the dark?”

There was a moment of total silence as Haze waited for an answer Tempo never provided, and the former chuckled.

“How about something brighter?” he laughed. Before Tempo could even speak, brightness blinded his eyes, and Tempo mentally cursed as he shut his eyes shut, taking a tentative step back in the process.

 _The fucker can manipulate light, too. Just great._ he thought as Haze’s laugh once again filled his ears from every direction.

“I’ll see you soon, darling.”

Tempo takes a tentative step backwards once the blinding light disappears, and as expected, as well as Haze.

“What the fuck? Hey, why are you there?!?” Shift’s yelling from two rooftops away triggers Tempo to notice the noise of the city below. He hasn’t realized that he let go of his hold on time.

He stands there for a second, looking down at the view that Haze was admiring before Tempo took notice of him. He wondered how long Haze sat there, waiting for him to realize he was there, waiting for him to do something, if he would approach him or ignore him altogether.

What is he playing at?

Tempo looks to Shift, forcing a laugh as he jumped back to the older. “Nothing, just messing with you!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For reference, here are their powers:  
> TEMPO: time manipulation, impenetrable skin, and shields  
> HAZE: light and dark manipulation, telekinesis, and superhuman strength  
> SHIFT: heightened senses, and a shape shifter


	5. Chapter 5

Seungmin ran down the stairs, having changed back into his school uniform on the school rooftop. He'd texted Jisung to leave his uniform there before he and Shift parted ways after lunch.

It’s been almost two hours since Jisung whisked him away during lunch, but from the texts he got from Felix, it was clear that he was supposedly in the infirmary with an upset stomache. How Jisung managed to make his friends believe the same four lies over and over again, he wasn't sure, but Jisung was a boy of many talents, it seems.

His greatest talent may as well be his amazing ability to keep up with his boyfriend, but maybe the fact that Jisung himself was quite an oddball helped with that.

After his lunch with Shift, the two parted ways. He decided against telling the older about Haze. Not knowing anything about the boy would have made explaining harder for him, so he thought of telling Shift about him when he had enough information to tell.

Haze hasn't posed a real threat to Seungmin or to anyone else. From the two times he's interacted with him, the most danger Haze was capable of was making his breath hitch and alarms go off in the back of his mind, too far out of reach for him to address, plus the seemingly mandatory blindness Seungmin suffers as Haze makes his exits.

Haze hasn’t caused any trouble at all, anyway. He says that he would— or could, more specifically, but Seungmin would rather wait and see what he was capable of before labelling him as a villain. He might just be a prankster with no intent to harm. That, Seungmin can just let off with a slap on the wrist instead of a fistfight.

Or maybe he was just a plain flirt, with how easily the word _‘darling’_ rolled off his tongue.

It took Seungmin a while to register the petname that Haze called him with. The balls of cotton that grew inside of him seemed like they've been there for a while, which might have explained his belated reaction. It was subtle, like it's settled in his system already.

He turns a corner, walking past the empty corridors until he bumps into a taller person. He gasps and loses his footing, taking a step back to balance himself. The person holds onto his arms, steadying him.

“Whoa, hey.” Hyunjin chuckled as he leaned down amusedly to look at Seungmin’s startled expression. His hands curl into Seungmin's hands a modicum tighter. “You alright?”

Seungmin blinked up at the boy. “Uhh, yeah. Wh-What are you doing here?”

Hyunjin let out a breath, almost a soft laugh, as he let go of Seungmin’s forearms. “I was about to check up on you. Jisung said that you weren’t feeling well, and you’ve been gone for a while.”

Hyunjin's voice was soft, filling Seungmin's ears comfortingly. Seungmin suddenly felt like he really was ill, and hearing Hyunjin speak to him like that was what was going to help him recover good as new.

The younger blinked again, taking another small step backwards, suddenly realizing that they were a little too close. “Oh.”

“Do you feel better?” Hyunjin asked, lifting one of his hands to brush Seungmin’s fringe out of his forehead. “You still look worn out.”

Seungmin wasn’t a stranger to physical contact that didn’t involve throwing fists, but he wasn’t accustomed to them, either. Hyunjin’s fingers were gentle on his forehead, almost as if he was worried that Seungmin would start to feel sick again if he wasn’t handled with the utmost care.

Seungmin let Hyunjin do whatever he was doing. It’s not like he despised the older. He was pretty sure that Hyunjin just has a _subtle_ obsession with wanting Seungmin’s attention, and Seungmin just let him have it whenever he could. They were friends, after all. It wasn’t unusual to want attention from friends.

How much attention, he wasn't sure.

“I’m better now.” Seungmin answered once Hyunjin let his hand fall to his side. He gave the taller a small smile. “Thanks for checking up on me.”

Hyunjin nodded, tilting his head towards the direction he came from. “Let’s go back to class?”

Once they returned, the teacher only gave them a look before going back to the lesson, Hyunjin going straight to his seat in the back corner whilst Seungmin went to his seat in the middle, sitting next to a curious Felix.

“How are you feeling? Better?” Felix whispered once Seungmin had settled in his chair.

“Yeah, just needed a quick nap.” Seungmin nodded. “I ran into Hyunjin on my way back, though.”

Felix head then bobs to the side in thought. His brows furrow slightly. “He wasn’t in the infirmary with you?”

Seungmin studies his friend’s reaction, shaking his head. “No. We met in the hallway. He said that he was on his way to check up on me.”

“Yeah, he was.” Felix deadpanned voice still low in case the teacher would scold them for talking. “Half an hour ago, that is.”

Seungmin doesn’t answer, not knowing what to say. Hyunjin looked as if he had been somewhere when Seungmin bumped into him, and Seungmin just assumed that _somewhere_ was the classroom, but if he left thirty minutes earlier, then where else could he have gone?

Or maybe he did go to the infirmary and saw that Seungmin wasn’t there. But why would he still be roaming the halls after that? He can’t have gone looking for Seungmin instead of back to the classroom, right? It was easier to pretend as if he didn’t go at all, or just assume that Seungmin was cutting classes and mind his own business.

Seungmin remembers the look in Hyunjin’s eyes whilst he brushed his hair out of his eyes. It was soft and teasing, a little bit playful, a little bit worried. It made Seungmin think that Hyunjin knew that he wasn’t where he was supposed to be, but was also telling Seungmin that he wouldn’t tell.

Seungmin pulls himself out of his thoughts as he turns back to look at the boy. Hyunjin was leaned back on his chair, eyes in front but mind clearly somewhere else as he chewed on the tip of his pen. It's a habit that he'd been trying to get rid off for a while now. Whenever he was spaced out, he'd find himself gnawing at whatever he was holding, if not his own lips.

He feels someone’s eyes on him, and points his gaze towards Seungmin’s big brown ones. The glint in Hyunjin's eyes makes Seungmin pause. How many times has he noticed the way Hyunjin's eyes looked like they held some sort of secret inside of them? Not many times, but this was one of them.

Hyunjin stops the corner of his lips from tugging itself upwards as he holds Seungmin’s gaze. Seungmin looked as if he was trying to figure something out, and that the answer would show itself if he stared at Hyunjin long enough. Hyunjin looked as if he was challenging Seungmin, asking him to answer the question that wasn’t even supposed to be there.

He smiles softly, throwing the younger boy a quick wink before moving his gaze back to the board.


	6. Chapter 6

Their last class for the day ends, and Felix practically jumps out of his seat the moment Changbin knocks on the frame of the door before leaning his side on it. Jeongin was behind the basketball player, the younger’s sweet smile plastered on his face as usual as they waited for their friends to gather their things.

“Binnie!” Felix practically swooned at the sight of his boyfriend, hurriedly moving to the front of the room to give the older a bear hug.

Changbin grinned, automatically taking the younger’s schoolbag from him. “Are you ready to go?”

Seungmin laughed when he saw the stars in Felix’s eyes halfway across the room. The faculty’s prince was always a cheerful student, but he was a different type of cheerful when he was with Changbin. Seeing that made Seungmin happy, knowing that Changbin saw Felix as more than the stars that Felix’s eyes reflected.

Hyunjin walks over to them, placing a nonchalant hand on Seungmin’s shoulder as he chuckled. “So, milkshakes?”

The sound of Hyunjin’s voice reminds Seungmin of his thoughts not even an hour ago. He still couldn’t figure out what Hyunjin was up to when he decided to step out of the class. He knows that it isn’t too much of a stretch for Hyunjin to want to check up on him, but it also wasn’t a situation he could think of off the top of his head. Seungmin couldn’t help but think that Hyunjin had a different reason for stepping out of the classroom, and the half hour window of time that Hyunjin was— for lack of a better term— missing wasn’t helping his case at all.

Seungmin feels a gentle nudge on his shoulder, and he looks up at Hyunjin who was trying to get his attention, now only noticing the hand on his shoulder. “Min, you alright?”

Seungmin nodded, slipping his bag through his arms, in the process shrugging off Hyunjin's hand. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Let’s go!” Felix beamed happily, wrapping his hands around Changbin’s arm.

* * *

They took a booth near the door, Changbin paying for pizza whilst everyone else had their milkshake of choice. Seungmin was seated by the window, eyes studying the streets outside in case Tempo was needed. In his friends’ eyes, he was just deep in thought, and they were used to Seungmin spacing off at the most random of times.

Felix and Jeongin sometimes commented on Seungmin's habit of looking away, claiming that they wished they had the patience and concentration to sit still like Seungmin, but they were too full of chatter and energy to even attempt to space out.

But aside from looking for something unusual in the busy city scenery, Seungmin was debating whether or not it was worth consulting Hyunjin about earlier. He knows that it might not be a big deal, but it was Hyunjin. As much as Seungmin didn’t want to admit it, the boy had an effect on Seungmin. And even before Seungmin realized that, Hyunjin always seemed... different.

Hyunjin wasn't one to skip classes. At least, not alone. He was always occupied inside the classroom, either listening to the lesson or finding something to entertain himself with if he wasn't interested at the moment, and the occasional times where he'd doze off. But he wasn't one to skip classes.

Hyunjin just probably wanted to get out of the boring classroom and roam around by himself for a few minutes. But even so, Seungmin wanted to make sure.

If Hyunjin really did go to the infirmary to check up on him, he needed to quickly make up a lie to explain why he wasn’t asleep with an upset stomache.

Another half hour passed, and the boys were finished with their afternoon snack. Jeongin is the first to stand, a laugh escaping his lips as he smiled at Changbin. “Thanks for the treat, Changbin.”

Changbin just waved him off, standing himself.

“Seungmin, do you want to walk to the bus stop together?” Felix asked as he smiled at his friend. Seungmin was the last to stand, and he gave each of the boys a glance before giving Felix an apologetic smile.

“Sorry, Lix, but I have to talk with Hyunjin. Changbin can walk you, right, Changbin?” Seungmin looked to Changbin by the end of his sentence, the shorter automatically nodding and throwing an arm over Felix’s shoulders. Felix didn't relent, too occupied with leaning into the older's touch to do so.

Seungmin met Hyunjin’s eyes, silently telling the boy that they needed to talk. Unsure, Hyunjin still nodded. Who was he to deny Seungmin anything, anyway?

“Well, then we’ll see you tomorrow.” Felix smiled as he and Changbin waved their friends goodbye once they stepped out of the pizza parlor.

Jeongin waved back at the retreating couple before turning to Hyunjin and Seungmin. “I’ll head home, too. You two get home safe, okay?”

Seungmin nodded whilst Hyunjin hummed in response, tilting his head towards the direction of Jeongin’s apartment as a silent gesture of telling the boy to go, a small smile curving his lips.

Once Jeongin was far enough, Seungmin turns to Hyunjin, who was looking at him expectantly, waiting for him to speak. Seungmin searches Hyunjin’s dark eyes, wondering if Hyunjin was going to lie to him if he asked. Felix would tell Seungmin of how Hyunjin couldn’t deny him of anything, and Seungmin thought that maybe he should test that out today.

“What did you want to talk about, Minnie?” Hyunjin asked lackadaisically, the nickname lingering in the air as Hyunjin spoke it with so much affection that even Seungmin couldn’t miss it.

Seungmin took a deep breath, not wanting to beat around the bush. “Where were you earlier?”

"What?" Hyunjin’s brow twitched. There's a fraction of a second where Hyunjin allows himself to show that he was caught off-guard, before he schools his expression to hide it with a small smile.

“When we bumped into each other in the hallways... you were somewhere else before that, weren’t you?”

Hyunjin doesn’t break eye contact, and Seungmin is suddenly hit with an overwhelming urge to make time freeze just so that he can take a breather before having to face those deep browns again. He fights against it, deciding that doing that was too mediocre and childish even for him. There was no reason for him to drown in Hyunjin’s eyes.

There certainly wasn’t enough reason for him to want to.

Hyunjin doesn’t answer, just takes one small step closer to Seungmin and tilts his head. He smirks. “I could ask you the same thing.”

It was Seungmin’s turn for his brow to twitch. “What?”

“When you were supposed to be sick in the infirmary... where were you?” Hyunjin queried, a subtle smirk making an appearance.

“That’s none of your business.”

“Then my answer is the same.” Hyunjin laughs with a quick shrug, looking up at the sky with a playful light in his eyes.

He looks back down at Seungmin, and despite the playfulness in his eyes, his tone was sincere. “Don’t worry, Seungmin. I won’t tell on you cutting classes.”

Seungmin stays silent. He can see the hesitation in Hyunjin's expression, the slight tincture of worry that Seungmin was upset with him. Seungmin knotted his lips to the side, unsure of how to expel that hesitation and worry from his friend.

Hyunjin chuckled. “I know when to keep a secret.”

Seungmin doesn’t answer, so he lets Hyunjin ruffle his hair, something that he’s done a few couple of times before. Seungmin wouldn’t admit it that he might have had to stop himself from melting at the touch once or twice.

“Let’s go home, yeah?” Hyunjin asked.

Seungmin stays quiet for a few more seconds before nodding, smiling softly. “Let’s go.”


	7. Chapter 7

It was well past midnight and Tempo was still out on patrol. He met up with Shift for a few minutes, crossing paths with the older hero and chatting with him for a little before going their own ways again. They weren’t necessarily stuck by the hip, only during Tempo’s first few months, but after that, they just did as they wanted.

If he was to spend every waking moment as Tempo with Shift, he might as well punch the older in the face. How Jisung managed to not get sick of him was a marvel, but Tempo reminded himself that whipped culture was a beautiful thing.

Tempo lands on the sidewalk, looking around the quiet city. It was still a little bit early for the city to be fast asleep, but it wasn’t out of the ordinary, given that it was a school night. There's still several groups of people out, rushing through midnight tasks or simply wandering around to pass the time.

He sees two teenage girls through the window of a convenience store, his eyes watching as they stuffed their coats with snacks. It was not unusual for him to see pickpockets and shoplifters. Usually, he’d just let them go. He just watched them, thinking that although it was immoral, it wasn't something he should butt into, and that there really isn't harm done. Sometimes, as he watched, he would even remember the very rare times in his childhood where he would do the same, ultimately feeling guilty afterwards and going back to the store to pay for the candies he stole.

After the girls are long gone, he enters the store and pays for the snacks they stole.

When he's outside of the convenience store, a cloud of darkness materializes on his feet. He’s trained to be alert, so he sees it at once. He jumps away from it, doing a backflip. When he lands on the ground, he feels someone behind him and hands on his upper arms.

He looks behind him and sees blood red lips curved into a playful smirk. Tempo freezes in place, eyes going wide behind his mask.

"How generous of you, Tempo. Letting a bunch of girls off the hook for stealing and paying in their stead." Haze’s voice cuts through the almost eerie quiet of the night, supplying the atmosphere with another type of eeriness.

Tempo pulls himself away from Haze, glaring at the boy. "What are you doing here?"

"Causing trouble, maybe?" Haze laughs and Tempo suddenly felt himself being lifted off the ground. He stumbles at the lack of control of his limbs, but it's not long before he realizes what's happening.

 _Fucking telekinesis_ , he thinks as he tries to struggle, knowing full well that it was no use. How could he even break out of a telekinetic hold?

"Haze, let go of me."

"Oh? Don't you want to play?" the black silk that Haze wore swayed as he lifted himself off the ground as well, eyes trained only on Tempo as he pouted in faux-disappointment.

"No!" he answered with a small scowl. He didn’t like how he compared the night sky to Haze’s dark eyes; endlessly dark with specks of breathtaking light.

"That's too bad, then. I was hoping you'd be my playmate." the taller practically purred his words out. There was only them out on the street, but Haze still wanted to make sure that only Tempo could hear his words.

His words were for Tempo only, after all.

Haze lifts himself off the ground and takes them higher; Tempo feels them flying farther and farther away from the cemented ground.

They stop, maybe a good twenty storeys up, and Haze glances at the building next to them, looking inside the glass wall before back to Tempo with a playful smirk. “Are you sure I can’t make a mess?”

As he says that, Tempo looks into the building. Haze’s eyes were just on the hero, his playful smirk matching the mischievous glint in his eyes as the office lights flicker on and off uncontrollably. If that wasn’t enough, Haze used his telekinesis to gather up all the papers on the desks, creating a whirlwind in the middle of the room.

"What the fuck _, stop_!" Tempo demanded as he looked back to the taller.

 _How much control does he have?_ Tempo thought in surprise. Any chance of Haze gaining powers recently is out the window. The amount of control he had with his powers was overwhelming, something only years of practicing his powers could let him achieve. _What. Does. He. Want?_

Haze sticks his lower lip out ever-so slightly, almost into a pout but not quite there yet. "Oh, little girls can shoplift but I can't make a mess?"

"Little girls I can pay for. And I sure as hell am not cleaning up your mess."

Haze then pouts fully as he flies nearer to Tempo. He bends forward, hands behind him as he gives the hero a cheeky grin. Haze stifles his grin, stopping himself from leaning just a little bit more so that their noses could touch.

Tempo doesn’t know why his scowl falls when he sees the taller’s eyes closer. He’s already compared the dark eyes to the night sky, but know he was sure that the light in Haze’s eyes could mimic the stars with how bright— and how beautiful— they were.

His eyes were a combination of light and dark dancing behind a sclera. Seungmin feels like he's looked into these eyes before, like he's wondered about them before.

"I don't want you to clean up after me, darling. I just want you to be with me when I play." Tempo didn’t miss the way his lips curled up even more as he spoke the endearment.

Darling. It irks Tempo to no end because he wasn't sure how to put into words that way his insides turned at the name. It feels like his throat is clogged with cotton and his heart stutter mid-beat at the sound of the syllables. He always found the name old fashioned, but he couldn’t help but think that Haze made it work.

"What game are you playing, Haze?" he bites back his tongue, wanting to think his words out thoroughly before speaking.

"I'm not yet sure, honestly." the white-masked male answered, once again stopping himself from leaning forwards and rubbing his nose against the hero’s.

He wanted to, he really, really did. Tempo’s nose wasn’t covered by his mask like his was, and Haze just wanted to bite on it.

"What the hell are you hoping to get out of this, then?”

There it was. A charming, playful smile. The glint in his eyes. The tilt of his head.

"You."


	8. Chapter 8

"What game are you playing, Haze?" he bites back his tongue, wanting to think his words out thoroughly before speaking.

"I'm not yet sure, honestly." the white-masked male answered, once again stopping himself from leaning forwards and rubbing his nose against the hero’s.

He wanted to, he really, really did. Tempo’s nose wasn’t covered by his mask like his was, and Haze just wanted to bite on it.

"What the hell are you hoping to get out of this, then?”

There it was. A charming, playful smile. The glint in his eyes. The tilt of his head.

"You."

The answer was short, immediate. It was so natural that Tempo’s heart couldn’t help but pause for a fraction of a second to process the word that rolled off Haze’s honey-coated lips. Or was it just his words that were coated with honey?

Tempo feels his brow twitch. What was he thinking, getting affected by some delinquent’s flirting?

"You're fucking with me, right?" he asked bluntly. He always was straight-forward, but he just couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that Haze was, too.

"Fucking drawn to you? Hell yeah." Haze’s voice was breathy but still incredibly confident. Tempo ignored the fact that Haze was still leaned forward, looking as if he was just looking for an excuse to move even closer than he already was. This was the first time he heard Haze swear, and he despised that he was attracted to hearing profanities from him.

Tempo narrows his eyes at Haze, not answering. Haze's grin only grows cheekier, like he wasn't on the precipice of either professing his undying love to Tempo or challenging him to a fight to the death. Tempo wasn't sure which one was more likely.

It’s silent after that, a mutual challenge between the two boys on who will speak up first, on who would take control. And Tempo— Seungmin— will be damned if he’d let someone he doesn’t know take control just like that.

"Okay, then." Tempo starts, still obviously on guard about the black-clothed boy. "What do I have to do to keep you in check, then?"

Surely he didn't want to take Tempo as a slave, right? Or wanted to blackmail him, or anything of the like. So far, his mischievousness wasn't sinister at all, only playful. But Tempo still wasn't sure. Maybe it was all an act to get his guard down.

Haze grins like the mischievous boy he is, eyes shining cheekily. It made Tempo— no, Seungmin— rethink his past observation of how Felix’s eyes looked as if the stars were inside them. Haze’s eyes shone brighter, more beautifully than Felix’s eyes did. Brighter and more beautiful than the stars even; like it held little specks of light inside of them.

"Pay attention to me~" he whines as he finally goes closer to Tempo and clings on to his arm, shaking it a little. The sudden touch catches Tempo off-guard. The only physical contact he's used to is kicks and punches, with Shift as an exception, and this boy was obviously not Shift.

Tempo lets out an exasperated breath. "Are you a _child_?"

He doesn’t shake Haze away from his arm.

Haze shakes his head, rather childishly. "I just want your attention."

Tempo decides to brush off the statement, and in the middle of doing so, remembers that he and Haze were still suspended mid-air. Tempo mentally applauds Haze's control over his powers.

"Let me down first."

With a tilt of his head, Haze genuinely looked like a toddler, his shining eyes suddenly showing innocent ignorance as he mumbled. "I'll never let you down."

The smooth reply made Seungmin's ears heat up, and he winced at the thought that he was blushing because of meaningless words thrown at him by a trickster.

"You know what I mean." Tempo says, going back to his statement of this boy being a child.

"Say my name first."

"Why?"

"Because I want to hear you say it."

The request was innocent, gameful. Haze’s eyes almost resembled a child’s that was asking for a toy, or a puppy asking for a treat. Tempo was almost sure that he'd feel bad if he refused him of this request, or any other request that was decorated with the same hopeful look. In other words, it was really difficult to refuse.

"... Haze."

Tempo doesn’t know how many times he’s said this name already, but he’s surprised at how easy the syllables rolled off his tongue; like he’s been chanting it for years longer than he’s been a hero.

And the child, the puppy, beams, the stars in his eyes flying around as if there was a meteor shower.

Haze brings them to the rooftop of the building that he messed up. Haze is the first to land on his feet, and he stares up at Tempo with a very teasing smile. Tempo doesn't have time to process anything before he's brought up higher in the air.

"What the f—" his sentence is cut off when he feels gravity's pull on him again, as if the switch was flicked back on. He drops the extra meter that he's been lifted, eyes shut tight and fists clenched to his chest as he just waits for himself to hit the ground.

"Ah!" he squeaks when he feels his fall break. No, he didn't hit the cement. He falls to Haze's arms, the taller's arms wrapp around his back and behind his knees as he looks at the hero with a playful smile.

"You swear a lot." Haze mumbled amusedly.

If it wasn’t obvious enough, the smile gave away that Haze’s intentions have been realized, now that he was carrying Tempo in his arms.

Tempo opens his eyes, glaring at the boy. "Are you for real?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Haze laughs as he gazes down at Tempo softly. He takes in the way that Tempo looks under the moonlight and in his arms, and notes that this is one of his favourite looks on the boy. "You're adorable. You can't be real."

"Piss off."

"Nuh-uh. You're mine." Haze purred as he nuzzles his nose in Tempo's hair. Tempo freezes in Haze's arms, breath caught in his throat as his mind goes blank. He doesn't know if it's because of the possessive undertone in his otherwise gameful tone, or because Haze automatically inhales the scent on Seungmin's hair like he'd been dying to do it all this time.

"Strawberries." he breathes out.


	9. Chapter 9

It takes him a moment to register that Haze smelled his hair, that Haze commented on his scent, that Haze thought he smelled like strawberries. With the realization comes along another stutter in his heartbeat, barely there, but still so _so_ annoying because a small part of his mind nagged at his hands weren't supposed to be tucked in his chest but should rather be wrapped around Haze's neck.

"Let go of me." Tempo’s tone wasn’t enough for this statement to merit as a demand, but it was still sharp enough to match the hero’s personality.

Haze pouts. "I want to hold on to you some more."

"It's late. I'm assuming you have school tomorrow." he wasn’t sure where he was going with this, but he just wanted to be back on his feet again; to not feel the black silk of Haze’s outfit brushing against his own violet suit made of a mix of latex and polyester. He wanted his palms to stop itching with the urge to hold onto Haze in return.

"School, I can skip. It's moments like this that I can't."

"Are you really such a flirt?"

"Only when it comes to you, darling."

Tempo doesn’t let the name ring in his ears for too long. "Let me go."

Another pout. "Okay."

Who was Haze to deny him of anything, anyway?

When Tempo is finally on his feet, he looks at Haze for a few seconds before heaving a sigh. "You're really not going to go home, are you?"

Haze only grins and shakes his head. He was dressed in black, masked in white, almost as if he was an angel of darkness, but he was acting like a child. Tempo wonders if the boy under the mask was just as full of intricacies as the boy in front of him.

Tempo sighs again, walking over to the edge of the rooftop and sitting down, swinging his legs over the ledge. He had nothing else to do, anyway. "Then let's stay here."

He doesn't see the overly excited and charmed smile that Haze lets out as he runs over to Tempo, sitting next to him. He waits for Haze to speak first, to make a childish comment or a flirty remark, but it seems that the trickster is content with simply being in the same space as him. Tempo let himself consider the fact that being in the presence of Haze was calming, after the initial hesitation that he was up to no good and the unsureness of the extent of his mischievousness was no longer an issue.

"If you want my attention, then I want your story." Tempo starts without glancing at the taller. His eyes were trained up at the sky, counting the stars that were shining above. He should get something out of this, at least. And if keeping Haze in check meant distracting him from doing anything else, then knowing more about him shouldn't be an issue.

There it was again, the small tilt of his head with the innocently ignorant look in his dark eyes. "What story?"

"Your powers."

Haze understands, and follows Tempo, tilting his head upwards so that he could admire the stars as well. "I was born with them."

"Then why are you coming out of nowhere?" when he asked this, he felt Haze’s eyes drop from the sky and to the building across them, and then his head moving so that he could face Tempo.

There was silence again as Haze thought back to a memory that Tempo didn't know of. His smirk tilts into a lopsided grin, eyes blinking in recognition.

"Because of you."

"What?" Tempo turns to face Haze as well, not understanding the answer.

"I want your attention." he grins, nose crinkling under his mask. Tempo admits that it tugs at his heartstrings. He doesn’t answer when he almost confuses Haze’s eyes for the night sky, only realizing the difference when he saw how bright they sparkled. The stars didn't shine with that kind of light.

"Were you born with your powers, too? You and Shift?" Haze asked when Tempo didn’t speak.

Tempo contemplates, knowing that private information shouldn't be given out to people he didn't trust. But Haze shared his story, if it was considered one, and Tempo knew that he was being honest when he told him where he got his powers. And it wasn't like he was revealing their identities this way. It wasn't like he or Shift had stories that differed from Haze's.

He nods with a quiet hum. "Mn. Shift and I met two years ago. He found out about my powers first. It was an accident, really, but he became my mentor after that, and now we fight together. Well, sometimes."

He didn't know why he was sharing as much as he was. Only Jisung knew the story of how Tempo came to be, being there when it happened. To Jisung, Shift was a different story. He's been a hero for three years now, and when he and Jisung met, he was already a few months into the scene.

"Do you manipulate time a lot?" Haze asked next. He was genuinely curious about Tempo, genuinely wanted to know more about him. His voice was proof of that, and that gave Tempo the nudge to share without fear of his own information being used against him.

Moments like this where they could just talk and laze around.

"Not really. How about you? Do you play with light and shadow a lot?" Tempo asked in return. He's never met anyone who could manipulate both dark and light, he didn't think that it was possible to until now, but thinking back on it, he didn't know why he thought of it as impossible in the first place. Haze handled his powers impressively well, and Tempo wondered which of the two he leaned more to.

Haze laughed, the sound drifting away in the air around them. "Sometimes. It's fun."

"Those and telekinesis... that's all, right?" the hero asked, trying to remember if Haze showed signs of powers other than that.

Haze shakes his head. "I'm strong, too."

"Mn."

"How about you? You can draw shields, you can play with time. Anything else?"

Tempo lifts a hand, running it down his opposite arm. "My skin. It can't be broken. I can't be injured."

It doesn’t surprise him that that feature of him isn’t general knowledge. He doesn’t exactly go around announcing that his skin is impenetrable. And it helped when he was faced with weapons, made him cocky that his opponents thought they could stab him or shoot a hole through him when it was impossible to do so.

It's quiet, and Tempo looks over to Haze, who's gazing at him silently. The light in his eyes remain gameful, as if he found something amusing. The way his lips curled seemed as if something clicked in his head, like something that he didn't know was amiss until it made sense.

"What?"

"I just thought that maybe the reason I don't want to hurt you is because you can't be scraped." Tempo shakes his head, already finding himself growing used to the other's overly flirty personality. He doesn't comment on how Haze looked at him like he was something that was incredibly fragile, and that may be the reason why the trickster didn't want to lay a hand on him. Right now, Tempo didn't know.

Tempo looks back to the sky. "Whatever."

Haze's laugh cuts through the night air for a second time.


	10. Chapter 10

"Are you alright?" Jeongin asks Hyunjin as he sat next to him. There's was still half an hour left before classes would start, and that meant Jeongin can very well enter any classroom he wanted until then. Changbin still wasn't in their classroom, most likely having breakfast with Felix, so Jeongin had no one to bother in his classroom.

Hyunjin nodded, stifling a yawn as he turned to his friend. "Yeah. I was up late, though."

Jeongin furrows his brows as he sees the tint of pink on the tips of his friend's ears, probably from recalling whatever kept him up so late. Hyunjin wasn't one to be up later than he needed to, surprisingly. He liked curling up under the covers as soon as possible instead of staying up well into the night. He also wasn't one to keep things from his best friend, mostly because his body betrayed him before he could even think of doing so.

Jeongin snickers. "Are you keeping something from me?"

"No." Hyunjin laughed, pinching the younger's nose. The tips of his ears heat up a modicum more. "I was just up late."

"Okay, then." Jeongin dropped the subject and looked around the classroom to see Seungmin entering the room. The boy beamed, calling out to him. "Seungmin!"

Hyunjin's eyes leave his desk to look at Seungmin.

The boy was used to late nights patrolling, so it didn't show that he only had two hours of sleep. He smiled at the younger, not even bothering to leave his bag by his chair and going straight to the back of the room where they were.

"Good morning." he smiled at the two whilst ruffling Jeongin's hair, a soft, delicate smile forming on his lips.

Jeongin and Seungmin fall into a natural conversation, and Hyunjin simply watches Seungmin. He couldn’t help it when the boy was just a natural at capturing attention; Hyunjin’s attention, specifically.

Yes, he was sleepy, but the boy's presence woke him up more than he cared to admit.

Everyone may think that his wanting for Seungmin's attention was a joke, maybe even just to tease the younger, some friendly banter, even, but Hyunjin knew that it wasn't the case. He just really, really wanted Seungmin's eyes on him. It was the small, selfish part of him that always wanted to whine out whenever he deemed that Seungmin wasn't paying enough attention to him.

Seungmin looks to Hyunjin and chuckles softly, the sound breaking Hyunjin from his thoughts.

"What's up with you?" he asked, moving to ruffle his hair like he did Jeongin’s. Seungmin's hand lingers on Hyunjin's head, and the latter leans into the touch before Seungmin pulls his hand back to his side.

"He was up late, so he's a little out of it." Jeongin said.

"Do you want to go out for some coffee? We still have a lot of time before class." Seungmin’s eyes studied Hyunjin’s face. It was obvious that the taller wasn’t used to being up as late as he was last night, doing whatever it is he was so busy with. There were slight bags under his eyes, but Hyunjin didn't look tired aside from that.

Hyunjin nods. Again, who was he to deny Seungmin of anything that he wanted?

"Do you want to come, Jeongin?" Seungmin asked as he looked at the younger boy, who only returned a smile as bright and a shake of his head.

"No, thanks. I'll go back to my room."

Hyunjin stands from his seat, cocking his head towards the door. "We'll walk you, come on."

The three of them step out of the classroom, and they walk Jeongin to his. The younger waves goodbye to the two of them, giggling to himself as he entered his room.

"Let's go?" Seungmin asks with a rather adorable tilt of his head, leaving Hyunjin stunned for a fraction of a second.

How deep _was_ he?

Hyunjin nods, smiling softly. "Okay."

They walk side-by-side in a comfortable silence, their arms brushing against each other every five steps but neither making a move to step closer or farther. Seungmin hummed as they walked, Hyunjin listened intently, the two of them making their way past the school gates and they end up in a cafe near their school, one that students from their school would go to a lot.

“What do you want?” Hyunjin asked Seungmin as they stepped into the counter.

_"What the hell are you hoping to get out of this, then?”_

_"You."_

Seungmin blinked the thought away as soon as it came; pursing his lips as his eyes combed over the variety of drinks he could order.

“Ah, a caramel coffee sounds nice.”

Hyunjin nods and orders for the both of them, Seungmin blinking a few more times in a feeble attempt to get remnants of last night away from his thoughts. He couldn't have Haze infiltrating even his civilian life, that was a tad too much for both of them.

“Let’s sit over there.” Hyunjin pointed over to the table near the window before Seungmin could even attempt to remember any more than he didn’t want to. Seungmin glances at the taller, seeing that he already has their coffees in a tray he held in his hands, so Seungmin nods and follows after Hyunjin to the table.

“So, what kept you up so late last night?” Seungmin asked as he blew on his hot drink. A part of him told him to ask, and he didn't question the weird inkling in his gut that told him to do so.

Hyunjin raises a brow, teasing with a hint of suspicion. “I didn’t take you for someone who gossiped.”

Seungmin laughs. “I’m not gossiping! I’m just asking.”

"Well, if it's alright with you, I don't want to answer that." Hyunjin quipped with a lopsided smile.

Seungmin shrugged. "Fine. I don't care, anyway."

Hyunjin pouted. "Now, now, saying you don't care is a little much."

Seungmin ignored the pout and rolled his eyes at the tug in his heartstrings. "Is it?"

Hyunjin chuckled.

They're laughing and talking, Hyunjin finding Seungmin giggling to be the epitome of adorable as the boy holds his coffee mug with his palms wrapped in the ceramic, elbows propped on the table. He feels his heart beat to the rhythm of Seungmin’s giggles, and the only thing he could think of is how he didn’t notice how drawn he was to Seungmin sooner.

The minutes pass and they only realize when Hyunjin checks the time, and eyes widen when he sees that they were already half an hour late. "Oh, shit! We're late."

"We are?" Seungmin asked, almost in a disbelieving laugh.

"Yes, oh no, I'm so sorry." Hyunjin apologized, mentally scolding himself for putting Seungmin in such a situation. The small selfish part of him that always wanted Seungmin's attention couldn't deny the offer of being with him alone this morning.

Hyunjin gets ready to stand when Seungmin holds on to his arms and pulls him back to his seat. The younger gives him his puppy-like smile that has Hyunjin melting faster than instantly.

"We're already late, anyway. Want to share a slice of cake, then?” the younger asked with more pep than Hyunjin would imagine Seungmin would have if he was late for class. He was already running late most days, sighing in relief when he sees that he got to the classroom before the teacher, so seeing Seungmin so relaxed about missing class is different.

Hyunjin blinks, really not taking Seungmin for the type to skip class, but Seungmin grins, and all other thoughts are thrown out the window by Hyunjin himself.

"Come on, we can skip first period." a hint of a pout is seen on Seungmin’s face. It was a habit that he didn’t acknowledge he had, and to Hyunjin, that just made Seungmin’s pout all the more deadly.

"I didn't take you for such a rebel." Hyunjin mused as he made himself comfortable on his chair again, eyes laughing as he looked at Seungmin.

Seungmin offered a coy shrug and a lax smile. "I have my moments."

"So, cake?"

"Yes, please." he smiled like a child granted a treat, and Hyunjin could only laugh as he stopped himself from reaching over and pinching his cheek. Seungmin's pout was deadly, but his smile was just as dangerous.


	11. Chapter 11

When Hyunjin insists on ordering a slice of peach chiffon cake, Seungmin is another type of smiles and giggles. Hyunjin is glad that he remembers that Seungmin liked peaches as they share the slice. He also finds it funny, how easy it is to make Seungmin smile and laugh but yet here he was, still trying so hard to do so.

Who could blame him, though, when his heart felt full whenever he manages to make Seungmin's lips curl up into a smile or his eyes crinkle at the sides from laughing.

They talk some more, already on their second round of coffee. It was nice, how natural conversation came to them despite not having many chances to bond despite their friends dating; but as natural as their conversations are, both Seungmin and Hyunjin find their silences just as comfortable.

Seungmin is looking at out the window, watching the streets outside. Hyunjin has since long ago noticed that Seungmin had this habit. His eyes will look so far away, as if looking for something; it made him look distracted to most, but Hyunjin thought that it made Seungmin look focused.

Hyunjin looks around the cafe, seeing another table across the coffee shop with students from their school. They were a group of four girls, and looked as if they were a year below them. One of the girls places her cup of tea on the saucer, tipping the spoon further to the side. The spoon slants even more and looks like it was going to fall past the saucer and straight to the floor.

Hyunjin's eyes barely move, and the spoon falls back into its place next to the tea cup before it could fall to the floor.

Seungmin calls for Hyunjin's attention, smiling adorably at the older as he has his fork in between his lips. Hyunjin almost melts at the sight, drinking the remainder of his coffee as a distraction from the boy in front of him.

"Let's go? Our first class is almost over." Seungmin said as he removed his fork from between his teeth and placed it on the now empty plate where a slice of peach chiffon was half an hour earlier.

Hyunjin nods and they stand to leave, Hyunjin not sparing the group of girls another glance.

They walk back to school, and Seungmin smiles at the comparison of sleepy, drowsy Hyunjin to perky, cheeky Hyunjin. He found both of them endearing in their own ways, but he was certainly more used to this one.

Hyunjin and Seungmin enter the classroom in between a change in teachers, and Felix is quick to interrogate them both.

"Where were you two? Your stuff was here but you two weren't." the boy asked not even two steps inside the room. Felix looked accusingly at the two of them, but with the way a knowing smile was ghosting on his lips, Seungmin and Hyunjin knew that the news of their whereabouts have reached him. They didn't exactly ask Jeongin to keep their coffee run a secret.

"Uhh..." Hyunjin started, looking to Seungmin in hopes that he’d answer instead.

"We lost track of time, then decided to wait for first period to end before coming back." Seungmin said before breaking into a teasing grin. "Were you worried?"

Felix almost scoffed at the question. “Not really, Jeongin told Changbin that you went for coffee. I'm just wondering why you didn't invite us."

Hyunjin laughed. "Next time, then."

The teacher enters, looks around the class until his eyes land on Seungmin. For a moment, Hyunjin and Seungmin think that they’ve been caught outside of school.

"Seungmin, Jisung is looking for you outside." the teacher says before walking to the teacher’s desk and placing his things on top, not even waiting to see if Seungmin had already walked outside of the classroom.

"You have a club thing?" Felix asked as Seungmin shrugged.

"Maybe. I'll be back."

Hyunjin watches as Seungmin leaves the classroom before going to his seat, fingers curling into his palm as a way to stop himself from reaching out for Seungmin's arm. He couldn’t hide the small frown he had when Jisung’s name was mentioned.

"What's up?" Seungmin asked the older boy who was waiting for him with his back pressed on the lockers, arms crossed coolly.

Jisung could feel that Seungmin was on high alert, and his eyes go down to Seungmin’s hands that looked just about itching to take his uniform off and run into the streets as Tempo. Jisung stopped himself from laughing, feeling mildly guilty for accidentally riling Seungmin up.

"I can't hang out after school today. Is it okay if you take pictures of the gym without me?"

Leave it Jisung to make Seungmin think that Tempo was needed. He rolls his eyes, stifling a chuckle. "You pulled me out of class to tell me you're ditching me?"

Jisung nods, grinning brightly. "Yep!"

“And may I ask _why_ you’re ditching me?”

“Uhh...” that was answer enough for Seungmin. He knew Jisung well enough to understand what that meant, and he would never admit that he’s do anything for Jisung and Minho to have a little more time with each other. Between Jisung being a genuinely busy person and Minho leading a double life, the only time they could spend quality time together is in the mornings, as they got ready for the day. Two hours without Jisung wouldn't kill Seungmin.

Seungmin groans, pretending as if he would rather not take pictures of the school gym. "Fine, fine. But you owe me."

"Come by the apartment later for dinner, does that sound good?” Jisung offered with his usual blinding smile that Seungmin knows Minho can go on and on about for hours on end. Seeing the smile and practically hearing Minho’s voice assured Seungmin that it was worth getting ditched for. He wouldn't admit it, though. He liked how the faux offence would creep into Jisung's and Minho's features any time he'd insult the couple about being too romantic.

Seungmin pretends to think about it before nodding. "Okay, but only because your food is good."

Jisung squeals and hugs Seungmin tight, thanking him for the favour before Seungmin waves him off to go back to his classroom with a small roll of his eyes.


	12. Chapter 12

The clicks of cameras could be heard on different corners of the gym. The shutters are drowned out by the sound of basketballs and basketball shoes hitting the hardwood floor of the gym. It's a surprisingly pleasant rhythm to listen in on, depending on whether or not a person wanted peace or quiet, but preferably not.

The photography club was tasked to take pictures of the gym to check if there were renovations needed to be made soon, as well as to put into the school's portfolio. The other members of the club were tasked to take pictures of different parts of the school on different days, and Jisung and Seungmin ended up with the gym. Maybe it was unfair for the president and the vice president to stick together, but no one had any complaints about it.

The basketball team has practice during this time of the school week. Felix and Jeongin are watching by the bleachers whilst Changbin and Hyunjin are in training. Seungmin is roaming around, taking pictures, looking over the members he was with if they needed his help. He’s stood by the end of the court, a good distance away from the practicing team.

Seungmin scowls at himself when his lens focuses in on a certain tall pointguard who was throwing a ball around with team captain Changbin. He scolds himself mentally, tearing his eyes away from the laughing Hyunjin and forcing himself to focus on his task so that he could finish sooner and go have food with Jisung and Minho.

He's taking pictures and through the lens, he sees the basketball coming straight for him, the camera focusing on the ball making its way to him. As a reflex, time stops. The bouncing of basketballs stop mid-air, basketball shoes mid-step, cameras freeze mid-shutter. He slowly takes a deep breathe before moving his head.

Seungmin looks over the camera, eyes wide at how close the basketball was from hitting him smack in the head. It was less than an arm away, and he curses when he realizes that he can't just make time move again and be two meters away.

Jisung had nothing to do with this, but Seungmin was going to blame him for this. He could already feel the dull ache of the basketball on his forehead and he winces at the pre-hit pain. Maybe he could conjure up a shield small enough that no one would see it. No, his shields are glowing and bright violet, no amount of a camera's flash can mimic that colour.

He was glad that he was physically incapable of bruising, because judging by the strength the basketball players used when they passed the basketballs, Seungmin was going to be sporting another kind of violet.

"Dinner better be worth it." he mutters before looking through the camera again, snapping a picture of the ball just so that he can show it Jisung and whine about it. Spiteful, he was aware.

"Seungmin!" Jeongin's and Felix's yells signal time moving forward again, and before Seungmin could get hit by the ball, he feels himself duck incredibly fast, knocking the wind out of him for a second and a half.

No, that wasn't _him_.

He freezes, moving the camera from his face at the growing familiarity of the force. It felt as if someone had pulled him down, or something. He wasn’t sure which of the two were more accurate.

"Are you okay?" Hyunjin comes running to him before Seungmin could begin to think that Haze was near. Seungmin felt another stutter in his heart, unsure of why he was couched on the side of the gym court when he was already resigned to getting a basketball to the face.

Hyunjin holds onto his shoulder, crouched down next to Seungmin as he looked at the photographer with worry.

"Are you hurt?” he asked as he gently examined Seungmin’s shoulders and arms and hands that were still holding onto his camera as he looked at Hyunjin with furrowed brows. Seungmin still hasn’t spoken a word, eyes still wider than they usually were, and that made Hyunjin worry more than he could register.

"Uhh, no. I'm fine." Seungmin answered; still distracted by the way he suddenly dived without even meaning to. His mind was swimming in dark eyes with specks of light dancing behind the sclera and a laugh that reached him from all directions.

In his confusion, Hyunjin’s worried frown and Haze’s teasing smirk took turns flashing in his vision once before finally focusing on Hyunjin.

Nope, it certainly was not him. He was sure of it. He was ready to get hit by a basketball; did it really make sense for him to duck without thought? His reflexes weren't _that_ exemplary. It didn't make sense.

Well, it did. It actually did. Maybe he really did move away without thinking, why was he even blaming this on someone that wasn’t here? Just because the boy walked into his life out of nowhere meant that he was going to be a constant even in Seungmin’s life.

"You're lucky you have quick reflexes, Min." Hyunjin noted as he stood up, hands still on Seungmin's shoulders so Seungmin could do nothing but stand as well. The word 'reflexes' made Seungmin's left knee buckle, and he was grateful that Hyunjin was holding onto him lest he wanted to fall to the ground. He already saved himself from one accident in the last ten minutes, there was no need for another one.

"Yeah, I guess." the shorter breathed out.

Yes, Tempo had quick reflexes, but Seungmin made sure not to let that show. He couldn't have possibly moved away from the ball on his own.

Or maybe he has, he didn't know.

Hyunjin let out a ghost of a smile, worry still clouding his dark eyes. He ruffles Seungmin's hair, guiding Seungmin to walk.

"I think you've already taken enough pictures. You still look shaken up, go sit for a little bit, okay?"

Seungmin can only nod as Hyunjin gestures for him to sit down on the front row of the bleachers.

The basketball player smooths his hair down with a warm smile before leaving to go back to the team, the basketball already retrieved by Changbin.

Seungmin ignores the stares from the middle part of the bleachers, looking over the pictures he's taken in silence. He lets out a halfhearted laugh, feeling dumb for thinking of Haze when he clearly wasn’t here. The trickster was crazy, but not crazy enough to follow him everywhere.

Because that meant that Haze knew who he was.


	13. Chapter 13

It takes several minutes before Felix and Jeongin leave their spots in the middle of the bleachers to go to Seungmin who was at the front, still seated where Hyunjin had left him. He had already gone through all the pictures he’s taken and deemed them adequate enough for him to stay in his spot until the end of basketball practice. The members of the photography club that Seungmin was with already went home after Seungmin insisted that they can go ahead and that Seungmin was going to go home with Felix and the others. Jisung and Minho won't be expecting him for another half hour, so he might as well pass the time here.

"You okay? That was a close one." Felix asked as he sat down next to Seungmin, throwing his arm across the younger’s shoulders.

"Yeah. Good thing I ducked." he answered tentatively.

"I didn't know you had such quick reflexes." Jeongin noted, seated on his other side. "It must have been the adrenaline."

"Mn."

The three of them looked back at the basketball team. They were playing a practice game, the team divided into two as they chased over the ball and whatever else mechanics are involved in basketball that Seungmin didn’t have the energy to recall right now. He's managed to figure out the Changbin and Hyunjin were on opposing teams, judging by how they shot each other playfully competitive glares throughout the game.

"Hyunjin keeps looking over at you." Jeongin giggled.

"I think he's still worried." Felix said.

"He's not." Seungmin said, half-pointedly and half-resigned. He could feel Hyunjin looking over at him every once in a while, and Seungmin couldn't get himself to look away from the boy as he ran around the gym court, with or without the basketball.

"Oh, come on! He was all over you!" Felix gushed, shaking Seungmin in a teasing way.

Jeongin rolled his eyes cheekily. "He's always all over him."

"He's not." Seungmin repeated in the same tone. He feels his cheeks heat up, and he chalks it off as the heat inside the stuffy gym and certainly not the fact that Hyunjin was so worried about him over a measly basketball that would have hurt his dignity more than his head.

"If you say so." Felix laughed, deciding to let the topic go and watch his boyfriend play.

Practice ends and Changbin and Felix go home, mumbling something about grabbing dinner together at a small restaurant a few minutes away from Felix's house and maybe Changbin staying the night if they finished late. Jeongin rolled his eyes at the couple whilst Hyunjin and Seungmin snickered in turn.

“We’ll see you Monday!” Felix smiled as they walked off, hands clasped.

“Seungmin, I’ll walk you home.” Hyunjin smiled as he wiped his sweat away with his hand towel.

Seungmin smiled politely, putting his camera away. “Thank you, but I’m meeting with friends for dinner.”

"Where?” Jeongin asked. He tells them Jisung and Minho’s apartment building, and Jeongin’s eyes light up when he recognizes the name.

“That’s across the street from mine!” he beamed. “Hyunjin lives near, too. Let’s all walk together, then.”

The three of them walked in silence, mainly because they could tell that practice has worn Hyunjin out, and also because Jeongin and Seungmin were pretty tired themselves, wanting nothing more than to laze around in their beds until Monday came. Seungmin and Jeongin were talking idly, commenting on whatever they passed by.

Hyunjin just hummed along to what Seungmin and Jeongin were chatting about, Hyunjin's hand resting steadily on Seungmin's shoulder. He'd drop it there after he ruffled Seungmin's hair, asking him if his head was okay, only dropping the subject after Seungmin insisted that he didn't hit anything at all.

“This is where I branch off.” Jeongin informs them when they reach the door of his apartment building.

“Get some rest.” Seungmin smiled as Hyunjin ruffled his hair with his other hand, not wanting to let go of Seungmin.

Jeongin nods as he waves the two older boys goodbye, running inside to his apartment where his older cousin was waiting for him with dinner.

“Come on.” Hyunjin nods towards the direction of the apartment building across the street, and Seungmin furrows his brows.

Hyunjin lets out a breathy laugh when he sees Seungmin’s confused expression. He reaches out, folding his fingers around Seungmin’s hand and tugging the boy to walk. Seungmin's breath catches in his throat at the urge to hold Hyunjin's hand tighter.

“I’m not leaving you alone until you’re with your friends.” Hyunjin says as they wait for the stoplight to turn red so that they could cross. There weren't any cars out but it was better to be safe.

“Mn.” Seungmin hummed, not fighting the urge of lacing his fingers between Hyunjin’s and just doing so. He doesn’t see how a nearby streetlamp flickers for a quick second, almost as if it started malfunctioning before gaining control of itself again.

They cross the street, and when they enter the building, they see Jisung in the lobby, a black cat curled up in his lap as he played with the feline, who purred and mewled as Jisung pinched and scratched its sides affectionately. There's a fond smile in Jisung's face as he chuckled, fingers digging into the black fur gently as he cooed at the cat.

“Jisung.” Seungmin called, not minding the way Hyunjin’s lips twitched into a frown when he saw Jisung.

"Hyunjin, hi! I didn't know you were coming, too." Jisung grinned as he stood, cat in his arms. The cat claws at Jisung's arm until he's carried like how a baby would be.

Seungmin snorts as his eyes narrow at the cat. The cat looks at him, taunting him to make a comment, and Seungmin rolls his eyes.

"I'm not staying long, I just walked Seungmin over." Hyunjin said as he let go of Seungmin’s hand and rested his palm on Seungmin’s shoulder instead. He felt that if he held Seungmin’s hand any longer, the lights in the lobby would either light up as bright as the sun or plain out short-circuit.

"No, you can stay for dinner. Minho made enough for four people." Jisung offered, and Hyunjin can swear that he heard the cat coo as it licked its paw.

Seungmin internally rolled his eyes, not surprised that Jisung’s overly kind nature elicited such a reaction from the feline.

The cat paws at Jisung's hand, demanding to be scratched, so Jisung does, his fingers treading over the black fur of the cat's stomache. Before Seungmin could snort again, the cat shoots him a glare, daring him to react. Seungmin glares back, rather playfully.

Hyunjin looks to Seungmin in question, so instead of snorting at the cat, Seungmin instead snorted at Jisung. "Jisung, he hasn't met Minho."

Jisung then smiles that bright smile he has reserved for the older boy. "Sorry, I forget sometimes that he didn't go to high school with us.”

“He's my boyfriend. He started college this year, so he's older than us." Jisung said, the cat’s paw curling on Jisung’s finger for a second before letting go and letting the boy scratch his stomache again.

"Oh." Hyunjin breaks out into a smile, and Seungmin could have sworn that the smile almost looked relieved. "I didn't know you had a boyfriend."

Jisung blushed, and the cat purred. Seungmin laughed.

"Minho's a little bitch, though." Seungmin commented, raising a brow at the cat.

The cat hisses, leaning away from the crook of Jisung's arm in what looks like an attempt to scratch Seungmin. Hyunjin would have been afraid, but seeing Seungmin stare blankly at the cat told him the there was either no real harm or that the cat not liking him was a normal phenomenon.

Either way, Hyunjin readied himself to step in front of Seungmin if the cat decided it wanted to turn violent.

"So, dinner?" Jisung smiled with his arms curled to cradle the cat more securely before it decided to pounce on Seungmin.

"I'd love to." Hyunjin said with a smile of his own.

They take the elevator and Hyunjin asks if he could pet Jisung's cat. Seungmin kept looking over the cat this whole time, so some of Hyunjin’s attention naturally shifted towards the feline. The cat was docile in Jisung's arms, but whenever Seungmin would make a comment or look at it, the cat would glare back with as much intensity.

"Careful, he might scratch you." Seungmin joked somewhat dryly.

"He only scratches _you._ " Jisung laughs, curling his nose at Seungmin.

The cat purrs under Hyunjin's touch, almost as if proving that Seungmin was the only one he didn't like. Seungmin flicks the cat's head, the cat scratching his finger before he could draw it back.

"You little brat!" Seungmin hissed, glaring at the cat that only narrowed its eyes at him. He held his hand to his chest, the pain already gone. He would have been irritated that he never held back whenever he attacked Seungmin, but it was all in good fun, and with full knowledge that Seungmin couldn't get hurt, so in another minute or two Seungmin would try to start another fight.

"It's your fault. Right, baby?" Jisung laughed as he brought the cat to his face and rubbed their noses together. The cat mewled in satisfaction, rubbing its nose with Jisung’s with its eyes closed gently.

Hyunjin couldn’t help but chuckle. Jisung was naturally affectionate; it was nice to see how attached Jisung was to his cat.

When they reach Jisung and Minho's unit, Jisung puts the cat down and smiles at Hyunjin.

"Minho's around here somewhere. I think he's in the kitchen. Hyunjin, come with me." Jisung said as he pulled Hyunjin away from the living room.

When the two are gone, Seungmin looks down at the cat on his feet, who was staring up at him in return. Slowly, Seungmin lifts his foot and kicks the cat, making him roll to the other side of the living room. The cat makes a sound as it rolls across the carpeted flooring of the apartment's living room, and Seungmin raises a brow, anticipating a quick whine that was surely overreacting.

Seungmin watches as the cat rolls on the floor with a blank expression on his face, internally hoping that he'd go dizzy. When the cat sits up however, his would-be messed up fur is replaced by Minho's ruffled hair, the older boy hissing at him despite already shifting back into his human form.

Seungmin snickers as a response to Minho's hiss. Minho ended up in a w-position with his hands tucked between his legs as he glared at Seungmin.

"Brat."

"Stand up before they come back." Seungmin chortles.

Hyunjin and Jisung come back from the kitchen, Jisung mumbling that Minho might be in the bathroom or something. Minho has just stood up when they see the college student, and Jisung smiled amusedly as his boyfriend fixes his messy hair, finding it completely endearing. "There you are! Seungmin brought a guest."

Minho acts as if he wasn't being pet behind the ear by Hyunjin minutes ago when he smiles at the boy. "Hi, it's nice to meet you."

“I’m Hyunjin.” Hyunjin smiled politely.

"Minho.”

Jisung and Seungmin stifle their snickers when Minho walks over to Hyunjin and shakes hands with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the longest chapter so far hhhhh i hope the story isn't boring yet, i already outlined a few more chapters, so updates are still constant *^^*
> 
> tell me how you think of the story so far!! you can talk to me on my [ twitter ](https://twitter.com/markeu_tuan93) if you'd like!! *^^*
> 
> thank you for reading!! i hope you all stay safe and happy <333


	14. Chapter 14

After Hyunjin and Minho acquainted themselves with each other, the group relocated to the kitchen. The four of them went on with their meal, idle chatter floating in the air between them.

Hyunjin could tell that the meal was made with care, although it was only a simple dinner. He smiled to himself, his chest warming at the thought of living with someone and having home-cooked meals together. Among the five of them, only Felix and Jeongin didn't live alone. Jeongin lived with his older cousin, and Felix was yet to move out and start living with Changbin, so he still went home to his parents. The talked about Felix moving in once they finished high school, which was less than a year away.

He smiled at Minho, who was revealed to be the chef of the night’s meal a few minutes prior. He recognized the boy, vaguely, maybe saw him once or twice in school every few months for the past years, and now Hyunjin knows that he was obviously there for Jisung. "Jisung said you didn't go to our high school. How did you meet, then?"

Seungmin stays quiet, chewing on his rice. He doesn't show it but he'll never get tired of hearing about Minho and Jisung. It was like listening to how his parents got together, in a way. Maybe not his parents, but Minho and Jisung were undoubtedly two of Seungmin's closest friends, and seeing them happy together made Seungmin happy, too.

Minho instantly smiled a smile that was reserved for anything Han Jisung, much like how Jisung smiled earlier in the afternoon. Seungmin rolled his eyes at the couple’s habits, although there was and exasperated fondness in the gesture.

"We're neighbors. I used to live in the unit across this one ever since I started high school. A year after that, Jisung moved in here. He was starting high school at that time, too, so that was how we started talking. One thing led to another and Jisung and I started dating, and I moved here a month after that. We were always together, anyway, so two units weren't necessary anymore."

Seungmin smiled as he chewed. Jisung and Minho started dating a few months before Minho was caught as Shift. He wasn't really caught; Minho confessed to Jisung. Jisung and Seungmin were already acquainted with each other at that time, having both been members of the photography club. Minho found out about Seungmin's powers when Seungmin came over one time and put a shield around a cat that was going to get hit by a falling flower pot, not knowing that the cat was Minho. After a whole lot of this and that, Minho convinced Seungmin to give being a superhero a try, and that was that.

Seungmin liked to complain that he regretted protecting Minho, saying that he was such a pain in the neck, and Minho would retort that Seungmin was a brat, but Jisung knows that they love each other despite all their bickering. He thought that maybe it was just something in their dynamic. Minho did like to pick fights with not only Seungmin, but with Chan as well, so Jisung has long ago dismissed Minho’s bickering with people as his type of platonic affection.

"Brat, stop spacing out." Minho lightly scolded as he flicked Seungmin's head. Seungmin could guess that it was payback for earlier. He mentally hoped that he wouldn't get a kick to the stomache as well as he rubbed his forehead and glared at Minho.

At the sight of Seungmin getting flicked, Hyunjin remembered that the couple owned a particularly clingy cat that suddenly disappeared. The last he saw of the cat was when Jisung put it down when they entered the apartment. The cat and Seungmin didn’t seem to get along well, though, so why Jisung left the cat with Seungmin was beyond Hyunjin.

"Where'd your cat go?” he mumbled, looking under the table in case it was there, curled up on Minho's or Jisung's feet.

Jisung tenses for a fraction of a second before picking at his rice. "Oh, uhh, he's probably there... somewhere."

"Or maybe a flower pot got to him. Something prickly, like a cactus." Seungmin said with a cheeky shrug. Minho narrowed his eyes at Seungmin, resisting the urge to smack the boy in front of someone he didn't know well yet. He had a feeling that Hyunjin was protective of Seungmin and the last thing he wanted was to be reported for assault when all he did was flick the boy a little too harshly.

His oversensitivity to everything picked up how Hyunjin reacted to Seungmin. Minho heard the way Hyunjin's breath hitched when Seungmin leaned into him, felt the thrumming of Hyunjin's heart when Seungmin laughed on the tips of his fingers, saw the way Hyunjin's fingers itched to reach for Seungmin.

"He might be asleep by now." Minho answers instead without batting an eye and Hyunjin nods, letting the topic go. The cat was really clingy with Jisung, so he thought that he would just wander around as they ate, but maybe he really did fall asleep already.

After dinner, Minho and Jisung walk Seungmin and Hyunjin to the lobby. Jisung wanted the two to stay longer, but Seungmin wasn't too keen on letting Minho and Hyunjin in the same room without Minho embarrassing him. Hyunjin was also still tired from practice, and a good night's rest was needed.

“What?” Seungmin asked Minho when the latter had his brows furrowed. Minho's senses were always hyper-active, and sometimes he pitied the boy for having to live with his heightened senses, but neither of them can deny that it came in handy in times like this.

The college student shakes his head in dismissal. “I think I hear something.”

He gives Seungmin a look, telling him that it wasn’t any danger, and Seungmin allows himself to relax once again. Minho probably heard a cat meowing two streets away, or suddenly found all the cars whizzing past them too loud, being able to hear them from farther and a little louder.

“You two get home safe.” Minho smiled as he bid them farewell.

“Thank you for dinner.” Hyunjin smiled.

“I’ll invite you over again some time.” Jisung beamed, to which Minho can only nod in agreement. Jisung had already planned on inviting Jeongin over next time, after finding out that the boy lived across the street. Minho could do nothing but nod along, not having the heart to refuse Jisung of anything.

“We’ll get going.” Seungmin chuckled. Hyunjin notes the look that Seungmin and Minho share as they exchange farewells. The two have been bickering all night, and whilst Jisung looked accustomed to the remarks, Hyunjin didn't know that Seungmin had a cynical side to him. He found it kind of endearing, how Minho and Seungmin exchanged insults coated in laughs and poke fun at each other naturally.

The couple walks back into the elevator, retreating into their shared apartment. Minho's brows furrow again, and this time it's Jisung who looks at him in question.

"Is something wrong?" Jisung asks as the elevator doors close.

Minho shakes his head in response, looping his arm around the younger's. "No, it's just thunder. It's going to rain in a while."

Jisung hummed in response and closed his eyes when Minho kissed his temple.

As Hyunjin and Seungmin walk out of the building, Hyunjin turns to look at the boy he was with. “Do you want to go back to my place for a cup of tea?"

Seungmin nods, eyes still on his feet as he walked. He hums, the tone exposing that he has a soft smile on. "That sounds nice."

The walk to Hyunjin’s apartment complex is barely five minutes, and Seungmin sits by the kitchen island as he watches Hyunjin prepare their tea. He would have helped, but the taller insisted that Seungmin just sit down and not lift a finger, throwing a harmless wink Seungmin’s way as he got teacups. Seungmin's lips knotted when his cheeks flared for a few seconds.

It wasn't his first time to be in Hyunjin's apartment, he's hung out here once or twice over their friendship. But it was his first time to be the only visitor. He didn't have Felix to bicker with, or Jeongin to giggle with, not even Changbin to chat with or listen to as he ordered Hyunjin around his own home. Now, it was just him and Hyunjin, and he allowed himself to watch Hyunjin's every move, not unlike the way Hyunjin would study him instead of his notes during class, or the way Hyunjin's eyes would be trained on his every move instead of their teacher's, as if he was more worthwhile than the discussion.

Thoughts like that, in the middle of class, would always merit a soft pink blush on the apples of Seungmin's cheeks, and he wondered if he had the same effect on Hyunjin, now that he was so focused on him and the tea that he was making them.

“Thank you.” Seungmin smiled when Hyunjin sits across him, placing a cup of tea near his fingers. Seungmin blows on the hot drink before taking a sip, making a mental note to remember that Hyunjin made tea with honey, not sugar.

Something tugs at Seungmin's mind at the thought of honey, and he pushes it down as quickly as it made it's presence known.

Once Seungmin takes another sip of tea, he figures out what Minho heard earlier. It wasn’t the pitter-patter of a cat two streets away, but the pitter-patter of water as rain clouds draw near.

And it wasn’t just the soft pitter-patter where he’d enjoy getting lightly showered in the rain as he makes his way home. No, it was loud and heavy, and Seungmin was almost waiting for lightning to make an appearance.

He looks out the window— or the wall, seeing as how Hyunjin’s apartment was mostly glass— and groans, not wanting to travel in heavy rain.

Hyunjin looks to where Seungmin’s eyes are trained, a small laugh leaving his lips as he sees how heavy the rain has gotten.

"You can sleep here. I have a spare room." Hyunjin offered, not wanting Seungmin to be out in the cold weather when it was also getting pretty late. If Seungmin didn't come back for tea with him, Seungmin would have been caught in the downpour. Hyunjin didn't want to worry of a sick Seungmin over the weekend.

"I'm sorry for the trouble." Seungmin pouted, and Hyunjin was willing to bet that the younger didn’t even realize that he was. Seungmin not knowing when he was pouting made Hyunjin want to squish the younger's cheeks.

"Don't worry about it. It's Saturday tomorrow, too, so you don't have to worry about your uniform." Hyunjin said.

Seungmin nodded, smiling thankfully at the older. "Thank you."

Hyunjin smiles before drinking his tea, and Seungmin thinks of how his eyes looked bright and beautiful because of how they lit up. He shakes his head, not wanting to be reminded of such a trickster at the moment.

He was curious about how many people had that type of eyes; dark enough that it looked like there were little specks of light trapped inside. He found that he was weak for them, may he be looking at Haze or Hyunjin, he was always lost in the lights in their eyes.

* * *

Hyunjin stirs in his sleep before waking up, rolling to his other side as he feels his eyelashes fluttering against the skin under his eyes. He guessed that it may be a little past midnight, or maybe a little before. He doesn’t hear the rain anymore, so it was safe to assume that it stopped. His room is its usual chilly, and he almost considers not leaving the warmth of his blankets and will himself back to sleep when he hears a sound from outside his bedroom.

He sits up when he hears the door to his unit closing. He doesn’t need a second to remember that Seungmin was in the guest bedroom, so he assumed that it was him that left, or returned.

He checks the time— 12: 17 am. It was only a few minutes passed midnight, but it was too late to be going anywhere, too.

He combs his fingers through his hair, swinging his legs over his bed.

A ghost of a smirk curves his full lips as the lights in his room flicker on as he commanded.


	15. Chapter 15

Tempo is stood on the rooftop of Hyunjin's apartment building, eyes raking through the city almost lazily. He pushed down the touch of worry that loomed over him at the thought of Hyunjin waking up and not finding him in the guest room. Hyunjin was going to get worried about him, and the last thing Seungmin wanted was to get his friend worked up over nothing. When he left the unit, he resolved to make a quick sweep of the city before going back, hopefully to a still deeply asleep Hyunjin.

The hero is too absorbed in his thoughts that he doesn’t notice the movement behind him. He doesn’t hear the door to the rooftop opening, or the footsteps that abruptly stop when feet are lifted off the ground simply by the will of the mind.

The only thing that breaks him out of his thoughts is the honey-like voice that cuts through the city air.

"Penny for your thoughts, darling?" Tempo turns and sees black silk seated on top of the door that led to the rooftop, legs crossed as it dangled off the edge. A white volto mask houses Haze's alluring eyes as he looks at Tempo with a twinge of leer.

Honey, and light, and the tugs at his heartstrings make him think back to the boy fast asleep storeys below.

"Seriously, how do you find me?" Tempo asked, partly in exasperation and partly in disbelief.

He wanted to believe something other than the theory that Haze really was stalking him. He found it so much easier to tolerate the taller's presence if he wasn't watching his every move like the creepy trickster than he might be. But Tempo liked to think that he was a good judge of character, and the boy in front of him was certainly not some creepy stalker that followed him around in the dead of the night, maybe even with a tracker or something of the like.

A tracker sounded dangerous, in his opinion. He might have planted it on his suit, and he wore his suit under his clothes every day. He'd be found no matter the time and occasion, and Tempo didn't want that. He didn't need a crazy super-powered stalker knowing his every move and finding out about his identity.

"Lucky guesses." Haze shrugged nonchalantly, hands propped behind him.

"What do you want this time, then?"

"What I wanted last night."

Tempo doesn’t stop himself from raising an eyebrow, arms crossed in front of him as he leans on the ledge of the rooftop. "My attention?"

"What else?" Haze’s smile grows, the white in his teeth showing.

He didn't need to much convincing to come to the conclusion that Haze was not some creepy stalker out to get him. He seemed more like a clingy boy, really vying for his attention with no ill intent. He still wanted to know if Haze's appearances had a countdown, though. He seemed to appear like clockwork, but Tempo didn't have a fixed schedule or a route.

"How long are you planning on doing this?"

"Why?" he asked, almost in a pout, but not quite.

He didn't want to get used to it. Haze wanted Tempo's attention, but Tempo didn't want to crave Haze's.

"I want to count down to the days until you'd stop bothering me." Tempo answered. The tone in his voice suggested that he was only teasing, and Haze caught on, a coy smile curving his full lips.

"I'm afraid we've still got a long way before that, then."

A scream is heard from below them, and Tempo is quick to jump down to see what was wrong.

He enters an ally, seeing a girl pinned to the wall, a knife to her throat. Her tears were settled on the blade of the knife, giving the weapon a new type of shine as the light of the streetlamp hit it.

"I'd let her go if I were you." Tempo sighed as he cracked his knuckles. His eyes were cold and calculating as he eyed the man, already positive that he wasn’t dangerous despite the knife in his grasp.

The mugger doesn't hesitate to throw the girl deeper into the ally and swinging his knife towards Tempo, who dodges as if they were in the middle of a choreographed dance. The dance continues as the knife chases him after each dodge, and Tempo was almost laughing at how futile the knife would be against him, anyway. His blood couldn’t be drawn by a blade as ordinary.

"Are you done?" he asked before throwing a punch on the mugger's jaw. The knife falls to the ground and Tempo pins the mugger against the wall, the very same spot he pinned the girl against. He pushes his arm against the mugger’s neck, preventing him from moving.

No one sees the knife fly from the ground and to the hands of a black-silked boy who was leaned against the streetlamp, his dark eyes watching the dance as if it was a performance made for him. The knife passed between his fingers, twirling around as if it was a pencil.

He sighed as he eyed the knife, his dark eyes catching the way it glinted under the streetlamp he was leaned against. He looked almost bored, watching the mugger that obviously stood no chance against Tempo.

His heart, though, was anything but bored as it drowned in every movement that Tempo made. He could feel the awe in his heart as he watched the exchange between Tempo and the mugger, the former almost laughing at how this barely counted as a fight. He was breathtaking, to say the least.

"Are you alright, miss?" Tempo asked the girl on the floor who had her hands on her neck in an attempt to soothe her skin.

"I'll be on my way now, miss. It isn't safe to be wandering around at this time." Haze's voice fills the alley and the woman stands, leaving. Tempo doesn’t spare the trickster a glance, not even to check where he was because Tempo was sure that Haze was not next to him.

Tempo's hold on the mugger's wrist tightens as he looks at the man with disgust. "People like you are disgusting."

The man spits on Tempo's face, but before a drop of saliva can even hit Tempo, the spit pauses mid-air. Haze stands from his leaning position on the streetlamp, his hand leaving the knife but the knife not leaving the air, still spinning around as if Haze was still twirling it between his fingers.

At the sight of the still streak of saliva near his face, Tempo doesn’t need to process it. He turns to Haze, whose dark eyes have been stripped of the light it naturally held, looking even darker without its usual playfulness. Illuminated by the streetlamp, Haze looks dangerous, every bit of the threat that Tempo first thought he was.

"How dare you try to dirty my darling's precious skin?" Haze sneered, and Tempo sees how small specks of darkness start to dance around Haze's figure. The knife spins faster, as if looking for something to aim at; someone to stab.

"Haze." Tempo calls, and at the sound of his voice, the knife stops midair, aimed perfectly for the man's neck.

Haze's jaw is locked in anger, and that was enough to distract Tempo to the point he almost didn't see the ball of spit fly away from him and hit the wall near the man's head. He was still calm and collected, but it was the type of calm that would call upon goosebumps to Tempo's arms and nape because it was clear that he wasn’t.

"Haze," Tempo calls again, not knowing why the taller was so worked up over something so minutiae. "calm down."

Haze hears his name, but it was as if the words enter one ear and go out the next. He feels an irregular beat in his heart, though, as the name reaches his ears, before it falls back into its steady pace. His dark eyes are still staring the mugger down, and his fist clenches as he takes a deep breath, hoping to calm down before he figured out exactly how dangerous he can be.

No, he can hold back. He knows he can. It's just a matter of if he wanted to.

“Haze.” Tempo calls again, not wanting to see the full extent of the taller’s powers out of the blue.

Haze’s eyes flicker to Tempo’s, and the anger instantly vanishes, leaving the eyes of a trickster that Tempo wouldn’t admit he can instantly tell are Haze’s.

Haze calms down, the clouds of darkness disappearing and the knife falling to the ground with a loud clang.

“I’m bringing him to the station.” Tempo says, still a little wary of putting Haze on edge again. At this point, he didn’t know what his pressure points were, so he better thread lightly. “I’ll see you soon, yeah?”

"But I want to come." he pouts, no signs of the cold, possessive aura that he had barely minutes ago.

"I think you scared him enough." Tempo lets out a soft laugh, wanting to assure both himself and Haze that whatever just happened was long gone now.

Haze looks down but Tempo can still see the honey-coated pout adorning the boy’s lips as he nods. “Okay.”

There was no way that the dangerous trickster from a minute ago was the same person as the same clingy boy in front of him right now. There was still darkness in his eyes, but this was nowhere near the ominous dark from earlier, this was drowned with specks of light, shining like stars in the night sky.

“I’ll see you soon, yeah?” Tempo repeated, and when Haze nods again, he leaves, the mugger still restrained by his wrists. The scare that Haze gave him left him too frozen to argue with being dragged to the police station.

As he leaves the station, Tempo runs his hand through his hair, fingers grazing his cheek where the man's spit would have hit him.

_How dare you try to dirty my darling's precious skin?"_

He feels a chill run down his spine. It was such a small thing to be mad about, but even in his memories, Tempo can still hear the venom in Haze’s voice, can still see how cold his eyes were as they shook in rage, can still feel the goosebumps that ran under his suit when he watched Haze, trying to figure out what he was planning to do to the mugger. He didn’t think a person can get that worked-up, and yet here he was, his mind thinking that Haze was capable of getting even more worked up if ever Tempo was ever met with anything more than a spit to the face.

He lets out a breath, a mixture of amusement and bewilderment. He wasn't sure if he wanted to find out what Haze was going to do if Tempo was ever met with any real danger.

“And Minho says I’m the brat.” he chuckles as he starts to move across the streets.

He comes back to Hyunjin's apartment and checks up on his classmate, sighing in relief when he sees the boy under his blankets, all tucked in and breathing shallow. He could only hope that Hyunjin didn’t wake up whilst he was gone and realize that he left.

Seungmin smiles softly, closing the door behind him and retiring to the guest bedroom.

The door closes and Hyunjin sits up, eyes on his door until he hears the door of his guest bedroom close.


	16. Chapter 16

When Seungmin wakes up, he's immediately on high alert. He throws the soft covers off his body, sitting up in the middle of the equally soft mattress. His brows are furrowed in slight panic and his wide eyes look over the room he was in.

The room is relatively nondescript, cool coloured walls and no decorations indicating that the room was regularly occupied. He doesn't feel imminent danger, and he wouldn't have slept so soundly if he was taken against his will.

He's not in his room, not in his home. He's not even in his own clothes, if the fabric softener was anything to prove that. Seungmin's mind does a full scan of last night, ending with him mentally cursing Jisung for filling his mind with his worries of Minho being kidnapped during patrol, or Minho not coming back home because he was injured, or Minho being caught by a villain that wasn’t CB and then held hostage, or something along those lines. The worries passed on to Seungmin sometimes, and as much as he appreciated the concern, Jisung knew that there was nothing to worry about.

“I swear to God, Jisung.” Seungmin said as he rolled his shoulders back, his face relaxing as he remembered where he was.

Seungmin walks out of Hyunjin's guest room, his nose instantly picking up the smell of eggs and bacon as he sees Hyunjin in the kitchen part of the unit making breakfast.

“Hey.” Seungmin greeted, voice still small due to just waking up.

Hyunjin looks away from his pan to give Seungmin a smile. “Hi.”

Hyunjin smiles fondly at the newly-awoken boy. He was wearing Hyunjin's sweater and pyjama pants, and Hyunjin loved how the shorter looked with his clothes on and sleep in his eyes, hair sticking up in different directions. Hyunjin sees a small puppy, tired after running around all day and wanting nothing more but to curl up to another hour of sleep.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?" he asked, his attention back on the food he was cooking.

"Mn. You're up early."

"I'm a morning person. Can I trouble you to make us coffee?"

Seungmin nodded despite Hyunjin’s back being turned to him. "On it."

The two of them move in silence, the only sounds filling the apartment were the sizzling of the pan and the bubbling of the coffee maker that served as the background music to their quiet footsteps.

Hyunjin’s heart warmed at the idea of Seungmin and him moving as if they lived together their whole lives. It made him a little happier than he thought it would, and he was trying his hardest to control the cheery grin that was fighting its way to his lips.

Seungmin, however, felt calm. He liked it, having someone else in the morning. He liked Hyunjin’s company, even when the older can be a little cocky sometimes (a big part of him liked that about Hyunjin, actually). He didn’t think that he’d ever spend a night at Hyunjin’s house, but now that he and Hyunjin were making breakfast together, he thought about how he’d like to do it again.

Seungmin finishes first, placing two steaming mugs of coffee on the kitchen island. At the back of his mind, he decides that eating on the kitchen island meant that they sat closer to each other compared to if they ate at the dining table two feet away.

He takes a seat, blowing on his hot drink as he watches Hyunjin put bacon in two plates with an egg and two slices of toast each.

"Min." Hyunjin says as he places the plates next to the coffee mugs, taking the seat across Seungmin’s.

"Hm?" Seungmin hummed, waiting for Hyunjin’s next words.

Hyunjin doesn't answer, and that makes Seungmin look up at him. He sees how Hyunjin’s lips twitch into a slight frown, before turning into a subtle pout as he reaches across the island and cups Seungmin's cheek with his palm.

Seungmin can feel his cheeks and ears go warm, and he wanted to blame it on how Hyunjin’s hand feels warm against Seungmin’s skin, but the way that Seungmin’s heart skipped a beat at the sudden contact told him otherwise. His skin burned where Hyunjin touched, but it didn't hurt him but made him feel warm and giddy all over.

Hyunjin’s thumb moves, and Seungmin feels the touch on the outline of his cheekbones. The same spot Seungmin touched last night. The spot on his cheek that Haze claimed would be dirtied by the spit of a mugger.

Seungmin's brow twitches at the shock of the coincidence and in confusion of Hyunjin's actions. Hyunjin did prove to do the most random of things, so maybe this was just one of them.

“Hyunjin...?” Seungmin whispered, afraid that if he spoke too loud he’d pull Hyunjin away harshly from his thoughts and give the other boy a headache.

Hyunjin smiles, going to lightly pinch Seungmin's cheek. "Nothing. Let’s eat."

Seungmin doesn’t comment on it, just nods and reaches for a slice of toast.

After breakfast, Hyunjin is busy with the dishes, and Seungmin is seated on the sofa, leaning against the armrest so that he could be closer to the glass wall of Hyunjin’s living room. He’s drawn the curtains to the sides again like they were last night, eyes looking over the city below them as he let the morning sun hit his face.

There’s a knock on the door, and before Seungmin can stand to open it, Hyunjin gives him the same look he gave when Seungmin offered to do the dishes. Seungmin huffs and nods; like a puppy, if Hyunjin said so himself, and turns back to watch the busy city below.

Hyunjin opens the door when he's sure that Seungmin has gone back to looking out into the city, and smiles when he sees Jeongin outside of his apartment.

"Oh, Seungmin, I didn't know you were here." Jeongin smiled as he sat next to the boy, running inside the unit the moment Hyunjin opened the door for him.

"He slept over." Hyunjin answered as he walked back to the sink to finish washing the dishes.

"He did?"

Seungmin hummed, turning away from the glass to give Jeongin a smile. "Yeah. It was raining last night so I spent the night."

"That's good, then. We wouldn't want you to get sick." Jeongin said.

Hyunjin joins them in the sofa, having finished with the dishes. He turns the television on, mumbling about how Jeongin only visited so that he can watch television, to which Seungmin laughed.

“Oh, wait, keep it there.” Jeongin said when the news is the first thing that comes on. The three of them watch the report in silence, all pairs of eyes trained on the screen as the newscaster talks about the vague details of an attempted mugging that Tempo put a stop to.

_"How dare you try to dirty my darling's precious skin?"_

_"Haze, calm down."_

His fingers brush over his cheek again, first thinking about how Haze was practically seething at the mugger, then at how softly Hyunjin’s thumb stroked the same spot on his cheek. He thought about dark eyes littered with little lights and full lips subtly tugging this way and that, and how his heart skipped beats more time since last night and this morning than his heart has ever done since he could remember.

"Seungmin?" Jeongin nudged Seungmin out of his thoughts when he realized that the boy was deep in his thoughts.

Seungmin turns to Jeongin, silently asking him what he wanted to say.

Jeongin grinned, the smile he used on anyone when he wanted something. "Come with me, let's buy ice-cream."

Seungmin chuckled as he nodded.

They leave Hyunjin in his apartment, going to the convenience store barely 50 steps away. Whilst Jeongin is occupied with picking a flavour, Seungmin looks around and sees a little cloud of light just outside of the convenience store window.

It was just floating there, waiting to be noticed. The sun was already out too bright as is, so how Seungmin was able to see a cloud of bright white was beyond him.

"Uhh, Jeongin, stay here. I just have to check something out." he says, not waiting for a reply as he sprints out of the convenience store

Seungmin runs into an alley and stops time just to take his clothes off and when time starts back up, he's Tempo. When he runs out of the alley and back to the front of the convenient store, the cloud of light is gone.

He’s beginning to think that it was just the trick of the light, but when he looks around, he sees another one not too far away. He goes over to it and traps it in his hands, almost laughing at the fact that he was able to do so.

"Oh, you found it. I was looking for that all morning."

Tempo looks to the direction of the voice and sees Haze standing on the entrance of the alley he just walked out of, and he thanked himself for hiding his clothes properly. Tempo opens his palms and watches as the ball of light flies back into a closed streetlamp.

"I hope you're not up to no good." he mused as he eyed the trickster, taking a few steps closer to him.

Haze smirked, tone as light and cheeky as always. "Of course not. Have you forgotten that as long as I have you, I'll be good?"

Haze takes Tempo's chin in his finger and makes Tempo's eyes meet his. He smirks. "So keep your eyes on me, yeah?"

He feels his heart skip a beat at how close they were. He almost leaned into Haze's touch, and he would have if he didn't remember that he wasn't supposed to.

Tempo flicks his chin out of Haze's grasp. He still wasn’t used to Haze’s deep eyes practically staring into his soul. And as far as he was concerned, there was already someone who did a pretty good job of making him flustered with just one look. He didn’t need another one.

"How's your cheek, darling?" Haze asks as he reaches over and strokes Tempo's cheek. Much like how Hyunjin did to Seungmin earlier in the morning. He flinches at the comparison his mind automatically made.

Did he come out simply to ask that?

"I didn't take you for the possessive type." Tempo remarked, his fingers wrapping around Haze’s wrist to stop the taller from stroking his cheek. He didn’t want to be any more distracted than he already was, and Haze’s touch really did a good job of making his thoughts go wild.

"Ah, but darling, I only go crazy around you." Haze giggles, tapping Tempo's nose with his free hand.

"Why are you out so early in the day, hmm?" he asked as he let go of Haze’s wrist. The only other time he’s ever encountered Haze before sundown was the afternoon of the bank robbers, and even then, it was already fairly late in the day. Haze being out and about before 10 in the morning seemed understandably suspicious to Tempo.

"I could ask you the same thing." Haze laughs, the whites of his teeth showing.

_Hyunjin smirks. “I could ask you the same thing.”_

_"What?”_

_"When you were supposed to be sick in the infirmary... where were you?”_

_“That’s none of your business.”_

_“Then my answer is the same.” Hyunjin laughs_.

Tempo takes a step back, mind reeling from all the sudden comparisons going through them. Haze tilts his head, confused, maybe even a little concerned.

Tempo blinks, shaking his head in a way to tell Haze that there was nothing to worry about. "I have to go. Don't cause trouble, you got me?"

"I certainly won't cause trouble if I have you, darling."

"And stop being a flirt." he says, more as an afterthought.

"Aww, you know that I only flirt with you, though." Haze said, winking at Tempo before lifting himself off the ground and flying off to who-knows where.

Tempo laughs before shaking his head and waiting for a few more seconds before running off, back into the alley and changing back into Seungmin.

"What the fuck is wrong with me?" he mumbled to himself as he ran back to the convenience store.


	17. Chapter 17

Seungmin jogs back to the convenience store after he's thrown his clothes above his suit. He sees Jeongin standing outside, a plastic bag in his hands as he waited for him.

“Jeongin.” Seungmin called when he was close enough, seeing as how the boy was facing the other way. The younger saw something perched on the rooftop of the building across the convenience store before the person ran off. He figured it was a superhero, but he wasn't familiar with any superheroes that wore black suits and white masks.

Jeongin turned to Seungmin with his usual charming smile on his face. "Where'd you go?"

"Oh, uhh, I saw a friend." Seungmin answered, waving his hand in dismissal. He wasn't exactly lying; in another world, he may have considered Haze his friend. In this world as well, maybe; a randomly appearing, cheeky, and flirtatious friend that wanted his attention at all times.

Jeongin nodded curtly, the plastic bag in his hands making a sound from how big his movements were. "Okay."

Speaking of cheeky and flirtatious friends that wanted his attention at all times.

“Let’s get back. Hyunjin must be impatient.” Seungmin chuckled, vaguely remembering a scowling Hyunjin whenever he was made to wait even a few minutes more than he’d like. Seungmin almost pinched Hyunjin's cheek when he and Jeongin decided to leave for ice-cream, the taller practically begging to come with them with his mouth curled into both a scowl and a pout; and he would have let Hyunjin come with them if not for the urge to spite the taller and leave him alone in his apartment for a few minutes.

When they get back to Hyunjin's apartment, the taller is in the kitchen, rummaging through his drawers for chips and soda that went well with ice-cream. Hyunjin instantly smiles when the two walk through the front door, barely stopping himself from latching onto either one of them.

"Did you have fun alone?" Seungmin teased whilst he placed the ice-cream tubs on the kitchen table.

Hyunjin huffed. "You're both mean to me."

"You're just jealous cause I got alone time with Seungmin." Jeongin jested. "But you spent the whole night with him, though."

Defiantly, Hyunjin tilted his nose up. "Your point?"

Seungmin looked away with a dismissive laugh.

The three of them end up in Hyunjin’s living room with a random channel playing a foreign movie. Jeongin was too engrossed in his ice-cream to pay attention to the plot, Seungmin’s eyes too far away into the glass wall to watch the movie, and Hyunjin too endeared by Seungmin to pay attention to anything that wasn’t Kim Seungmin.

He’d be caught staring every few minutes, but Hyunjin was too shameless to stop. When Seungmin would glance at him, he’d either smirk or wink at the younger, followed by Seungmin’s disbelieving chuckle as he turned back to the city below them. There would be several seconds where the apples of Seungmin's cheeks would blush red, and Hyunjin counted the minutes until Seungmin would look his way again so that he could make the younger blush for another time.

Halfway through the movie, Jeongin stood, yawning as he locked himself in Hyunjin’s room for a nap. Seungmin had somehow ended up with his head on Hyunjin’s shoulder, his knees curled to his chest as he watched the afternoon bustling of the city. He doesn't remember how he's moved closer to Hyunjin, and only realized it when it was too late to pull away; the warmth radiating from the taller was too comfortable for Seungmin to want to pull away. If anything, he wanted to curl up on Hyunjin's side even more.

He knows that it was his own doing; that he moved there on his own. Hyunjin was too busy enjoying his ice-cream and watching over Seungmin to do it himself.

He can feel Hyunjin’s heartbeat drumming against his own shoulder. He can hear it from where his ear was pressed on the front of Hyunjin’s shoulder. He felt himself smile, his eyes closing as he registered how irregular Hyunjin’s heart was beating. He wished that he had Minho's heightened senses, so that he could hear Hyunjin's heartbeat louder. Maybe he could feel the beating up to the tips of his toes if he focused hard enough.

Seungmin falls asleep a few minutes later with Hyunjin’s heartbeat calming him enough to call on dreams. It doesn't take long for Hyunjin to realize that the boy on his shoulder has fallen asleep, and his heart swells with affection as he watches him sleep.

Hyunjin’s eyes move, his bowl of ice-cream flying from his hand to the coffee table by his feet. As gently as he could, he moves Seungmin, careful not to wake him up as he places the sleeping boy’s head on his lap.

A fond smile curves Hyunjin’s lips as he carefully threads Seungmin’s locks out of his eyes. His heart had started to pace at a more reasonable pace than earlier, its beating following to the rhythm of Seungmin’s breathing. It was still its own type of hopeless, but it allowed Hyunjin to breathe without fear of having a heart attack, so he going to take what he can get.

His eyes never leave Seungmin’s as he plays with the lights in his apartment unit. He always wondered how much light and dark made Seungmin’s skin glow the most, and he thought that now was as good a time as any to find out.

He realized that no matter the combination of light and dark, Seungmin would always glow the brightest in Hyunjin’s eyes. Maybe it was another one of Seungmin’s powers, to always look so ethereal no matter the situation.

His fingers leave Seungmin’s hair, dropping to his cheek as he touches it as softly as he can. He feels himself gritting his teeth as his mind is invaded with the thought of something dirty touching Seungmin’s skin. Seungmin is precious, and should only be treated as such.

He closes his eyes, drawing a deep breath as he wills himself to calm down. Seungmin. Tempo. He always find himself losing control because of him, but even so, he’d never felt so grounded before.

Hyunjin falls asleep as well, his hold on the lights loosening, which makes the lights turn off completely.

Seungmin wakes up half an hour later and sees that he's on Hyunjin's lap. His heart swells at the realization, any hope of falling back asleep gone now that his heart was wide-awake and making sure that blood was rushing to his ears and cheeks.

He blinks his sleep away, realizing that the lights were turned off. He stands and goes to open the lights but realizes that his hand is in Hyunjin's, their fingers securely intertwined. He goes to take it out but Hyunjin's hold is strong, and he's afraid to wake him up if he tugged harder. Seungmin could only lay Hyunjin on the couch and sit on the floor, deciding to wait until Hyunjin woke up.

He wants a little light, so he conjures up a shield, in the middle is their clasped hands, and Seungmin laughs as he looks at the glowing violet ball that housed their locked fingers. Seeing their clasped hands secured inside one of his shields made him want to protect them with everything he had. He didn't want to let go.

 _Cute._ he thinks as he looks the shield with a mixture of awe and endearment. Maybe it was just him, but his shields have never glowed this bright before.

He looks up, and Seungmin furrows his brows when Hyunjin's and Haze's faces flash before him again in a sort of hallucination that he wants to get rid off before it gets worse. Maybe it was his shield, the way it made Hyunjin’s face glow, just enough that the top half of his face was still covered, almost in a mask of darkness.

Seungmin couldn’t even blame himself for anything. Hyunjin somehow reminded him of Haze, and Haze Hyunjin. The two weren’t too different from each other, so it was only natural for Seungmin to think that they could be the same person.

He chortles, quiet enough not to wake Hyunjin but loud enough that he felt his shoulders shake.

"Stupid, to think that Hyunjin can be—" the thought is cut off and he's shocked by the words that play in his mind.

No. It can’t be. It just can’t, right? It was ridiculous to even entertain such thoughts.

In his shock, he pulls away from Hyunjin's hand, strong enough to wake him up.

Hyunjin is pulled from his sleep and wakes up. Even in his drowsy state, he remembers that he was with Seungmin, and worry seeps his veins as he thinks that Seungmin may be in trouble.

He sits up, the lights flicker on. He looks in front of him, his panicked eyes meeting Seungmin’s wide ones.


	18. Chapter 18

"Stupid, to think that Hyunjin can be—" the thought is cut off and he's shocked by the words that play in his mind.

No. It can’t be. It just can’t, right? It was ridiculous to even entertain such thoughts.

In his shock, he pulls away from Hyunjin's hand in shock, strong enough to wake him up.

Hyunjin is pulled from his sleep and wakes up. Even in his drowsy state, he remembers that he was with Seungmin, and worry seeps his veins as he thinks that Seungmin may be in trouble.

He sits up, the lights flicker on. He looks in front of him, his panicked eyes meeting Seungmin’s wide ones.

The two of them stare each other in silence, Seungmin on the floor and Hyunjin on the sofa. Hyunjin can hear his heart beating in his ears, and by the look Seungmin was giving him, it was safe to assume that he was the same. Seungmin was holding his hand to his chest, fingers twitching at the loss of Hyunjin's fingers between them.

Both of them were frozen, their minds both whizzing past them and staying still. It was an overwhelming silence compared to the silence minutes ago. Hyunjin felt that if he breathed wrong then Seungmin’s thoughts would be spoken into words, and he was in no way, shape, or form ready for confrontation.

"Why are the lights off?" Jeongin yawned, hands on the light switch.

Just like that, the tension in the room disappears.

The two of them look at Jeongin and Seungmin visibly relaxes when he realizes that the lights were turned on by Jeongin. He almost laughed, the hand that was in Hyunjin’s still clutched to his chest.

Of course, he was overreacting.

Hyunjin blinked, his eyes going from Jeongin to Seungmin, finally realizing that the younger was seated on the floor when he was sure he was on his lap just earlier.

"Why are you on the floor?" Hyunjin mumbled, still half-asleep. A few traces of sleep that was scared away came back, as if to save Hyunjin from any whiplash he’d get if he continued to be shaken awake.

Seungmin sighs, now mentally laughing at his crazy thoughts. "You looked uncomfortable sitting. So I made you lie down."

Yes, it was just crazy thoughts. Seungmin’s crazy, crazy thoughts.

Hyunjin sees the smile ghosting over Seungmin's features and realizes that if Seungmin was on to him, then he wasn't anymore. He sighs in relief.

"It's getting pretty late, we should head home." Jeongin says, hands finally dropping from where it was perched on the wall, revealing the light switch under his palm.

Seungmin nods. "Yeah."

"You don't want me to walk you?" Hyunjin asked Seungmin, but glances at Jeongin last minute in an attempt to include the younger in the question.

"I can walk. It's not too far." Jeongin says as he goes to get a glass of water.

"I can manage, it's no biggie." Seungmin says as he stands, tilting his head and offering Hyunjin a sincere smile. The corners of his lips were twitching in unlaughed giggles, and Hyunjin fought the urge to reach out for Seungmin and dig his fingers into his sides to tickle him until he had no more air to laugh with.

“I’ll bring your clothes back soon.” Seungmin smiled as he tugged on the sleeve of the sweater he was wearing. He’s long since changed out of Hyunjin’s pyjama pants and into a pair of Hyunjin’s jogging pants. His uniform was tucked inside his school bag, making it look chunkier than it usually did.

“Okay.” Hyunjin nodded as he stood up, leading the two boys to the door. “Get home safe, both of you.”

“See you soon!” Jeongin beamed as he hopped out of Hyunjin’s apartment, Seungmin falling into step after Jeongin and waving, quite adorably, at Hyunjin.

“I’ll see you soon.” breathed out, eyes solemnly trained on Hyunjin, who only nodded.

He closes the door after Jeongin and Seungmin turn the corner, walking to the elevator as they shared quiet chatter with each other. Hyunjin combs his hand through his hair, letting out a relieved sigh.

Seungmin's wide eyes come back to his mind and he feels his heart stutter again, in fear more than anything else.

Hyunjin feels his knees buckle and he stops himself from falling just in time. He ends up with his back leaned on the door as he mentally thanks Jeongin for being where he was when he woke up. He didn't know how to explain to Seungmin how the lights suddenly turned on.

He didn't mean to. He was shocked when he felt something pulling on his hand, and that pulled him out of his sleep forcefully. He didn't even realize that he turned the lights on until he saw Seungmin's surprised eyes as he looked at him.

It was also a good thing that Jeongin was still half-asleep, so the younger didn't realize that he didn't turn the lights on.

Hyunjin laughs, sliding down the door, his legs folding, but not enough for his knees to reach his chest.

He might be found out sooner than he wanted.

He remembers Seungmin's puppy-like smile as he waved goodbye, and Hyunjin's heart is once again filled with warmth as he's overcome with the urge to wrap his arms around him and never let go.

“So much for keeping an identity.” he said to himself, another laugh leaving his lips. He had no idea how Seungmin would react, and he wanted to keep his identity a secret until he had a concrete enough idea.

Maybe sauntering around the city clad in black and a white mask wasn't his best idea, but he couldn't think of anything else to do. It brought him closer to Tempo, though, and that was something he would never regret doing.

Hyunjin stands and goes to his bedroom, seeing a flash of purple whizz past.

Tempo is running around the city, patrolling for the sake of clearing his mind. He’d run into an alley the moment he and Jeongin parted ways, peeling off Hyunjin’s clothes and revealing the polyester-latex mix of his suit. He dropped his bag and clothes on Jisung and Minho’s balcony, knowing he can come back for them later. In the split second he was there, he saw the photography club president in the kitchen, making tea.

He was going crazy, he was sure of it. Just because superpowers weren't unusual meant that the world was too small.

His world, at least. It just can't be possible.

He loses his footing, blaming it on his erratic heartbeat. Why was he even so worked up about it? Was it the heat? Is that why people were getting hot-headed here and there?

His cheek twitches, Hyunjin’s and Haze’s touch ghosting over his cheek as he losing his footing again. He sighs, bringing his hand to his cheek as he closes his eyes.

Brown. Deep, dark, almost black brown. Playful, teasing eyes. Full, honey-dipped lips. Charming, cheeky smirks and coy laughs.

Tempo opens his eyes, wanting to get rid of the imagery before the picture got bigger.

"Crazy, I'm going crazy." he mutters as he jumps across a rooftop.

"What am I even doing?" he groans, standing in the middle of a random rooftop as he combs his hands through his hair. "It's like I'm _waiting_ for him to show up."

To think that Hyunjin was Haze, that Haze was Hyunjin. It was stupid, it was crazy. It made no sense.

No, it did. It made sense. That’s what’s so crazy about it. It was stupid how much it made sense.

What were the chances that Haze would want Tempo's attention so much, when Hyunjin already had Seungmin's? It was crazy.

What would Hyunjin even gain by doing this? He’s kept his powers hidden for so long, what pushed him to suddenly waltz into the night and make him spin around in circles?

But Haze made it clear what he wanted. He wanted Tempo’s attention. And that just made it all the more frustrating. How can he be so honest and straight-forward whilst also being two people at once? Was he even aware that he was going after the same person, too?

No, of course, not. Because Hyunjin can’t be Haze. Haze can’t be Hyunjin. It was outrageous.

"Why am I even convincing myself too much?" he laughs. It was frustrating him, all the unnecessary thoughts that he was putting in his mind when he should be living both his lives in peace.

"Stupid. Crazy, and stupid." he laughs. People said that love made you stupid and crazy. But he wasn't in love. He couldn't be.

In love with who, even?

Tempo lets out a frustrated yell before moving along the rooftops.


	19. Chapter 19

Seungmin decides to go home after an hour of tiring himself out. He goes back to Minho and Jisung’s apartment balcony, grabs his stuff and changes back into Hyunjin’s clothes before heading to his apartment. His mind has calmed compared to his racing thoughts from earlier.

Seungmin makes a note to ask Minho if his powers were contagious, because the whole way home, Seungmin can smell Hyunjin's natural scent of coconut past the faded smell of fabric conditioner. He can also swear that wearing Hyunjin's clothes almost felt like Hyunjin himself was holding him close, in a wierd way.

He unlocks the door of his apartment and he tosses his bag by the side of his door. His hand hovers over the light switch involuntarily when he goes to turn the lights on. His lips curl into a surly pout when he suddenly recalls the way the lights flashed on earlier. He gulps the musings down, wanting nothing more than to curl up in his bed and fall asleep, enveloped by the warmth that Hyunjin’s clothes had.

But of course, Seungmin wouldn’t be able to do that. The moment his feet drag further into his apartment, he spots something on his coffee table. It was a small glass figurine, a little bit bigger than his palm, of a cat, its body as dark as onyx and eyes white in a pristine glare. The light bounced off the glass in an eye-catching way, demanding Seungmin to walk closer to it.

Seungmin wanted to sigh, but ended up rolling his eyes as he grabs the glass statue and enters his bedroom. He shakes the figurine in his hand violently, hoping that Minho would feel dizzy when he knew it was a long shot before tossing the figurine to his bed.

"Seriously, what is your obsession with cats?" he asked Minho who was now laid upside-down on his headboard. Minho's legs were propped past the headboard and on the wall. His hair was more than its usual messy thanks to having been flipped in the air. His eyes glared at Seungmin the same way the figurine did— menacing, but harmless.

"They're cute, okay?" Minho intoned as he rolled himself into a sitting position. He huffs, even though his breath was hardly knocked off him. "And stop manhandling me, Jesus Christ!"

"As if you'd get hurt." Seungmin snorted and sat by the foot of his bed, his fingers toying with the sleeves of the sweater he was wearing, providing a lot more warmth than the thick fabric of the sweater promised. He figured that maybe because it was Hyunjin’s, but he quickly pushed that idea to the back of his mind. It wasn't the time for giddy thoughts like that.

"Excuse _me_ , but _I_ don't have magic skin like _you_!" Minho tried to look offended, but ended up looking like he wanted nothing more than to have skin as impenetrable as Seungmin’s and go flying off here and there without a care in the world.

Seungmin waves the statement off, sighing at Minho, not having the slightest idea of what the college student was doing in his apartment unannounced. "What are you even doing here?"

Minho crosses his arms behind his head, leaning against the headboard and looking as if he was recalling a story as old as time. "I was in a scuffle with CB nearby. Then I saw you walking home and was calling you but you were... distracted."

CB, a trickster with laser beam emission, superhuman strength, and the power to fly, is Shift’s quote-unquote nemesis. Well, in the public’s eye. Their relationship was more playful than they let on, their fights just being a way to destress from their classes. Outside of their masks, Minho and Chan would be found running around their university’s halls or buying school supplies together, the both of them sharing random musings and laughing and being the best of friends.

"I wasn't distracted." Seungmin rolled his eyes as he sat next to Minho on his bed. He didn’t bother to lie, not really caring that Minho found him dazed and confused.

He still didn’t want to explain, though. He knows how outspoken the older boy can be, and he wasn’t in the mood to hear the boy rambling about his endless thoughts. It was a good chance that he’ll end up tangling his thoughts even more when he barely managed to straighten them out.

Minho raises a brow. "I can practically hear your thoughts, kid."

"You have super senses, so what?" Seungmin copied the tone Minho used earlier when talking about his impenetrable skin. He was double-thinking his earlier desire to ask Minho if his powers were contagious. He'd rather not know.

"You know my hearing doesn't go _that_ far." Minho deadpanned.

Seungmin snorts, chuckling at how sarcastic Minho can be even without trying. He meets Minho’s eyes, gaze nothing sarcastic, but concerned and curious.

He sighed, not giving Minho an answer. Minho takes this as Seungmin's acquiesce.

"So, tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing's wrong."

"I hope you know that if I had CB's powers, I'd be zapping you left and right." Minho unfolded his arms from behind his head, flicking his hands towards Seungmin, acting as if laser beams would come from it if he did the sound effects right enough.

Seungmin huffed and shook his head.

"Tell me." Minho whined as his hands fell to his lap. His voice was light despite the somewhat serious atmosphere. It was Minho’s way to tell Seungmin that he was safe to spill his thoughts and share them. Seungmin didn't need reminding, as much as he and Minho bickered about everything under the sun, he knew that he could come running to the older boy whenever he needed a shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen to him.

He pursed his lips in thought, thinking back to Minho and Jisung and how they smiled whenever they talked about each other. It made Seungmin feel warm, knowing that his friends were happy to be together, and he'd never admit that there are times he'd feel jealous of them. Sometimes, he'd feel jealous of Felix and Changbin, too, because they were perfect for each other.

"Why did you fall in love when you were too busy being a superhero?" Seungmin finally asked. He was once again fingering the sleeves of Hyunjin’s sweater, looking for any loose threads he can claw at. Hyunjin wouldn't mind if he picked at it a little.

Minho titled his head, pressing his lips together before letting them tug into a subtle smile. "Because it was Jisung."

Seungmin snorted. He should have expected. "That's so cheesy."

Minho exhales, forcing his laugh down his throat. "It's true. I knew that I was putting him at risk when I told him about being Shift, but I also knew that if I didn't, he'd figure it out one way or another and I might as well tell him at the soonest."

"Mn." Seungmin answered with a slow nod. He gave up on looking for loose threads, deciding to let himself bathe in the warmth that the sweater he gave him instead.

"Why? There's someone that caught your eye?"

"Not exactly." he muttered, his eyes flicking to Minho’s quickly before looking away again. He doesn’t know just how much Minho can see with his more than average eyes. He knows that Minho can control his x-ray vision, but he didn’t know if Minho can actually _see_ the way all kinds of emotions swim through someone’s eyes.

"I can feel your heartbeat, Seungmin. And I can hear it, too. It's loud and it's fast, and besides, I know you won't ask something like that without a reason." Minho said. He kept his calm tone, wanting to tell the younger boy that his secrets were safe with him. He wanted Seungmin to know that he understands as much as he can, and that he’d help Seungmin in any way he can.

Seungmin sighed, tilting his head to the ceiling before back down to look at Minho. He nibbled on his bottom lip before jutting it out, unconsciously pouting. Seungmin's brow twitched when he realized what he was doing and he draws his lower lip back between his teeth instead.

Minho gave him a curt nod, and Seungmin sighed again. "I'm just... confused. There's something I think is happening but I don't know if I want it to be true."

"Why won't you want it to be true?"

"Because then it makes it so real." Seungmin’s voice bordered on a whine, and that made Minho laugh, eyes folding into half-moons. He really was a kid, and Minho wasn’t wrong to treat him like a younger brother.

"Love is real, kid." Minho said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. In a way, it was.

"I know. That's what confuses me. How real it is."

Minho laughed again when Seungmin pouted. Despite Minho’s obsession with cats, Seungmin was the one puppy he’d gladly make an exception for. "What's so confusing?"

"I don't know... I'm confused and I don't even know why."

Minho sighs, nuzzling Seungmin's head in his shoulder. "Tell me, who is this?"

Seungmin is silent. Minho smirked.

"It's that Hyunjin kid, is it?"

"How do you know?" Seungmin complained when he didn’t even get the chance to deny anything.

"I told you, I can hear your heartbeat." Minho laughs. "Imagine how loud it was ringing in my ears when we had dinner last night."

Minho didn't comment that he could feel the way Seungmin's heart skipped a beat when he said his name just now. He didn't tell Seungmin that he could smell the coconut as well as Seungmin did, and that told Minho that Seungmin was wearing Hyunjin's clothes.

"Shut up." Seungmin feels a blush on his ears. "But, yes. It's him."

"What's so wrong about it, then? He seems nice."

Seungmin gulped, not knowing if he should tell Minho the next part, but he knew that Minho was the best person to talk to about this, so he takes a deep breath and answers. "He is... and he might have powers."

"Powers?" Minho queried.

"Yeah. I just... wish I was a little bit more clueless so that I won't figure it out but I'm not and I can see that he has but... I also can't.” Seungmin’s brows meet as he processes his words. Even he couldn’t understand what he meant, but he was hoping that Minho did. “What if he doesn't and I blow my cover when I confront him?"

"Then look for the right time."

"The right time?"

Minho nodded and offered Seungmin a comforting smile. "Yeah. You can't just go accusing people of having powers willy-nilly."

"Says you." Seungmin snorted, remembering Minho practically forcing him to admit he had powers back then.

"Hey! You put a _shield_ around me! It wasn't willy-nilly!" Minho retorted. He feigned a look of annoyance and disbelief at having to even explain himself when he clearly didn’t do anything.

"If I knew it was you I should have let you get bonked by the flower pot."

"I could _hear_ it falling, kid."

"Why'd you stay still, then?"

"I was too lazy to move!"


	20. Chapter 20

Weeks pass and Seungmin has gotten the thought of Haze and Hyunjin being the same person out of his head. Or well, at least under control. He didn't want to lash out on either of them when the time comes that he was too frustrated with the two. Or one.

But it was simply unlikely for him to grow frustrated enough to lash out. Not when Hyunjin would call him ‘Min’ or Haze would call him ‘darling’. Not when he could feel their eyes on him, the butterflies in his stomache creeping their way up to his heart. He couldn’t see himself lash out when Hyunjin laughed too hard that milk squirted out his nose, or when Haze tilted his head for the third time in two hours and made a comment about a pout he was sure wasn’t there.

But the underlying touch of frustration was there, during the sunsets, when Hyunjin’s smile as bright as day would be replaced by Haze’s smirk as enigmatic as night. It was a small window of time of not seeing either of them, and it gave Seungmin the breather he badly needed despite wishing he didn’t.

By this time, it's become a sort of routine for Haze to join Tempo in his patrols. Not so much as join, but more of like the two of them playing tag, with Tempo going around the city looking for crime and Haze going around the city looking for Tempo. Once Haze finds Tempo, it's game over, because all the silk-clothed boy would want to do is stay in one spot and chat.

Nothing much has changed with Hyunjin compared to before and after Haze showed up. He’d still be the cocky and teasing boy that would tease Seungmin when he got the chance, but also the boy that gave Seungmin too much attention that he can’t help but nurse a soft spot for him despite his attempts not to.

Like right now, when Hyunjin leaves the table and comes back minutes later, placing a carton of Seungmin’s favorite milk in front of Seungmin, smiling and saying that he saw it earlier and remembered that they don’t serve it often, so Seungmin best take advantage of the stock.

“Thanks.” Seungmin said, taking the carton and bringing the straw to him lips, wishing the gulping down his blush was as easy as gulping down the milk. Hyunjin’s easy smile and Changbin’s obvious snort didn’t help at all, especially after Jeongin snickered and Felix poked at his side teasingly.

The bell rings, signalling the end of lunch. Jeongin and Changbin left first, wanting to get to their classroom early in hopes one of their classmates have the answers to their quiz next period. Hyunjin, Seungmin, and Felix walked backed to their classroom, taking their time because their next teacher tended to not show up to class at all if she wasn't late for half of the period.

"Psst."

Seungmin looks behind him and sees Jisung ushing him closer. The older boy was hiding behind the set of lockers that Seungmin was walking across. He raises a brow at the older, but he gives him a look that told Seungmin that he needed to go.

"Uhh, guys, I'll catch up with you soon." Seungmin mumbled before walking over to Jisung.

Hyunjin and Felix looked back to Seungmin in an attempt to figure out what he was up to, but when they turned around, Jisung and Seungmin already sprinted up the stairs, neither boy even registering that Seungmin was called over by Jisung.

"What's happening?" Seungmin asked as they raced up the stairs.

"CB. You know, the usual."

"Honestly, why doesn't Shift just kick his butt and get it over with?"

A laugh as they enter the rooftop, Jisung’s giggle echoed through the wind. "He likes the drama. Or whatever."

"Careful, Jisung. Next thing you know, he's falling for his enemy." Seungmin teased as he threw his blazer off, revealing part of his suit.

"As if." Jisung snorted, having full confidence that Minho was his and his alone.

"I know." Seungmin tittered as he pulled his mask on.

Tempo jumps off the rooftop, dashing towards the bridge where CB and Shift seem to almost always find themselves in whenever they have fights. He figured that they’ve been there for a while now, seeing that they were well into their childish antics.

They were at the centre of the bridge, which was closed down when the two made their appearance. They were in the middle of hand-to-hand combat, and Tempo takes his chance to come closer when Shift dodged a supposed kick to the stomache by doing a backflip.

"Honestly, if you weren't so madly in love with Jisung, I'd think that you have a crush on CB or something." Tempo commented as he rushed to Shift's side, voice low enough that even Shift wouldn't hear if not for his heightened senses.

Shift laughed, the both of them dodging one of CB's laser beams, who was now in the air. "Oh, come on. You know I'd never do that to my baby."

"I see you called the sidekick over." CB chuckled as he tilted his head at Tempo. CB was in the air, the white light of his laser sparking his palm as he aimed, but didn't shoot.

Tempo laughed, doing a flip as he dodged the beam that was shot at him. "I told you, I'm no sidekick."

CB always called him that, just something to add to their playful banter. Tempo humoured it, knowing that he can whine about it all he wanted after.

"He's too much of a brat." Shift laughed before turning into a harpy eagle and flying to CB, dodging the villian's beams. The eagle circled around CB, cawing as if to tease the villian for not being able to hit him with the lasers.

"Tempo, I'm getting kind of tired, should we speed this up a bit?" Shift asked as he landed next to where Tempo was leaned on the bridge. When he turns back to his human form, he's seated on the ledge; they looked as if they were just idly walking by and decided to stay by the bridge for a few minutes and share stories.

Tempo blew on his nails, stealing a glance at CB who was still in the air. "Don't you mean slow it down?"

When CB sees the smirk on Tempo's face, he scoffs in faux understanding. "Of course, you call your little sidekick because you've grown tired of me."

Shift laughs, folding his hands behind his head. "Well, we can't go on with this for another hour, don't you think? You might get tired of me if we do."

After Shift says that, CB freezes in place, as well as the whole world except for Tempo and Shift. Shift laughs before he leans back even further, falling back-first off the bridge. Tempo doesn't flinch when a harpy eagle makes its second appearance and flies to where CB was frozen, he just goes back to inspecting his nails, trying to decide if it was time to clip them.

"Honestly, doesn't he ever get tired?" Tempo mused as he watched the bird peck at CB's wrists and arms. For what reason, he wasn't sure.

The eagle flies back to where Tempo stood, shifting back into a human in front of him. "Oh, come on. It's stress relief."

"Stress relief?" Tempo laughed. "You and Chan have been fighting nonstop for three years. That's even longer that the time I've been Tempo."

"You'll understand when you meet a person that just wants to play." Shift laughed and turned to look up at the frozen villain.

Tempo recalls Haze's words from a few weeks ago, seemingly a long time ago

_"Haze, let go of me."_

_"Oh? Don't you want to play?"_

"Min?" Shift asks when his friend is oddly silent. Tempo blinks at the name.

"What?" he asked, then groaned. How could he think of Haze one second then Hyunjin the next? He really was going crazy. He only hoped that Shift thought that question was directed at him instead of his thoughts.

He makes time move again, but doesn't pay attention to the way CB falls to the center off the bridge, cursing the pain in his wrists.

 _Oh, right. The wrists are their losing points._ Tempo thinks to himself as he remembers a few fights where CB shoots Shift's wrist, and the hero admitting defeat almost instantly.

Shift's proud laugh brings him back to reality. "You lost again, CB."

"That's because you have time on your hands." CB scoffed, sitting on the cement. He looks to Tempo, offering him a quick wink that Tempo scoffs at, shaking his head in amusement.

Shift waves him off. "Oh, come on. I've only ever needed Tempo's help no more that seven times until now."

Tempo takes a small rock that was laid near his feet, flicking it towards CB's nose, but somehow ended up hitting him on the forehead, thanks to his imperfect aim.

"Ow!" CB whined.

"That's what you get for calling me a sidekick." Tempo said before blowing a raspberry at the trickster.

"See? He can make his own decisions! He's no sidekick!” Shift said proudly as if he had a point to prove in the first place.

"What I _am_ , is late for class." he sighed, his arms dropping to his sides with the conclusion that he’d clip his nails after school today.

CB laughed. "Bummer."

"Chan will drive you back." Shift shrugged.

"Excuse me?" the trickster raises to his feet, brow arched underneath his mask.

"Fine, I'll come with you." Shift groaned, acting as if he was forced to do something as tedious as sit in a car for a few minutes.

"I can't believe you." CB said with a faux sneer.

"Imagine people thinking you're his sidekick." Tempo snorted.

"Imagine going to school with him." CB snorted back.

Shift huffed. "Both of you, shut up."


	21. Chapter 21

Chan drives Seungmin back to school, with Minho grumbling in the shotgun that he wanted to go home and sleep. Seungmin changed into a spare uniform that Minho somehow had in his bag, which he stashed by the bridge along with Chan’s things. Seungmin figured that Minho was planning on calling him all along, so he brought Seungmin a change of clothes just in case.

Minho’s grumbles, however, die down the moment Chan pulls up in front of the school gates and his eyes catch sight of a smiling Jisung, leaned on the wall next to the gate. He had Seungmin’s uniform in his hands, the set that Seungmin threw off before setting out.

Chan lowers Minho’s window when Jisung pushes himself off the wall and walks towards the car.

“Hi, baby.” Minho said with a touch of leer in his voice as he looked out the window.

“Hi.” Jisung smiled, passing the uniform to Minho over the window. Chan rolled his eyes from the driver’s seat, the only other person not distracted enough to miss it being Seungmin, who snorted in turn. Chan looked at Seungmin’s through the rearview mirror and they locked eyes. They both agreed to give Minho and Jisung half a minute before breaking them apart.

That half a minute is cut short to ten seconds when a smiling Jisung gave a giggling Minho a kiss.

“Okay, that’s enough. Thanks for the ride, Chan.” Seungmin said, cutting off their moment. He hops off Chan’s car and prods on Jisung’s arm, pulling the boy a few steps away before he thought of gifting Minho another kiss.

“Bye, Jisung.” Minho laughed as Seungmin continued to drag him towards the gate. “I’ll see you at home!”

“Love you!” Jisung called back before turning around and falling into step with Seungmin.

"What you tell them happened?" Seungmin asked Jisung as the both of them stepped inside the school building. The halls were quiet save for one or two students walking around.

"Uhh, that your parents called for you." Jisung said, tone unsure if anyone would have believed it at all.

Seungmin barked out a humoured laugh and raised a brow at Jisung. "My parents?"

Jisung laughed, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder, over to where they came from. It was easy to guess that he was gesturing to Chan and Minho. "They can't be mine, I'm dating one of them."

"I..." Seungmin drops it, shaking his head. He can never fully understand how Jisung’s thoughts worked, but it made for a few chortles every now and then.

Just before Seungmin and Jisung can part ways to go back to their classrooms, the fire alarm rings, and students start filing out of their classrooms. Seungmin looks around, behind him, to where he was sure the nearest fire alarm was, but no one was there. His eyes narrow, trying to see better because he was sure that that specific fire alarm was the one that triggered the loud ringing.

"Wha— hey!" Jisung says as he holds on to Seungmin, the both of them walking the direction that everyone else was. Seungmin drops it, letting go of the inkling feeling that he knew who rang the fire alarm. There was a good chance that there really was a fire somewhere in the building, although Seungmin doubted that Minho's hyper-sensitive nose wouldn't pick up the smell of smoke.

They end up in the gym, the place filling up with students, teachers, and faculty alike. The inkling feeling of suspicion grows, a voice in his head nagging at him to step outside and take a look around the halls.

Seungmin slips away from Jisung, saying, "I have an odd feeling, I'll be back."

When he exits the gym, he instantly sees a touch of black silk running behind a corner. He didn’t need to see the white mask that went with the black silk to know who it was. Seungmin forgets that he's in his uniform and runs after him.

What he was doing here, he had no idea. What he was doing running around the empty halls has Seungmin at a loss for words altogether.

When he turns the corner, however, he runs straight into Haze's chest, the taller pressing his hands onto Seungmin's back to keep him from falling. He feels the dark eyes stare at him from behind the volto mask, not missing the skittish flashes of emotion in his eyes.

A playful smirk makes its appearance, and the school's lights make the glint in Haze's eyes brighter. "Hi."

Seungmin takes a deep, tentative breath, suddenly aware that he wasn’t Tempo right now. To Seungmin, the boy in front of him was a total stranger. Haze was never on the news, no reports of him to claim whether he was another one of the city’s sweethearts or a public menace.

Seungmin feigns a guarded expression. "...Hi"

"Why are you wandering around, hmm? You should be with the others." Haze tilts his head still looking at Seungmin with as much leer as he'd look at Tempo. Seungmin suddenly wasn't sure if Haze was naturally flirty, or if he really did know who Seungmin was. He didn’t know which one he’d prefer less.

"I..." Seungmin doesn't know which window his words flew out off, but he wished that his thoughts were thrown out with them. He couldn't even look straight at Haze's alluring eyes without being reminded that he wasn't Tempo right now, and that one wrong slip of the tongue might expose his identity.

He had to make sure that his identity as Tempo wouldn’t be exposed, not right now. Not when he was internally fidgeting under Haze’s hand on his back, their chests inches apart. He hoped that the close proximity threw him off enough for him to bite down the usual remarks he’d say when Haze got too flirty.

Seungmin decides to test his luck. "Who are you?"

"Hmm." Haze hums, moving a little closer to Seungmin. He looked almost amused at the question. The glint of amusement made Seungmin’s breath stutter for a second, before he breathes as if nothing was wrong in the first place.

Haze moves even closer, and Seungmin could swear that he can see pass the white volto mask, a distinct beauty mark just under his left eye. Haze's smirk tilts upwards as he leans even closer, and Seungmin's breath hitches in his throat when he feels their noses touch.

Haze leaned close every once in a while, but never this close. This was the closest Haze has been to him, and he was sure that even when he was a few inches away, he’d already had a surprisingly hard time breathing.

He closes his eyes tight, his heart going impossibly fast at how close they were. He could see tiny flecks of brown in Haze's dark eyes and that somehow made the troublemaker’s eyes seem even darker despite the chocolate accents.

Haze chuckles, softly, lowly, barely a breath, as he moves. Seungmin could feel his breath just above his ear. Seungmin couldn’t even let out a breath of relief when he moved away from his eyes.

"Are you sure that you don't know who I am?" Haze asked, taunted, teased, his voice barely above a whisper. His voice made goosebumps rise all over Seungmin’s nape, and he tried his hardest not to let out a shiver.

A beat passes. Haze's breath hovers above Seungmin's ear, as if catching his breath. It was as if Haze was going through a last-minute contemplation before speaking again.

"Darling?" another breath is caught in Seungmin's throat as his eyes fly open, the name making his heart beat even faster than it already was. His heart stuttered to the rhythm of the name, over and over again until his knees were close to giving out.

Haze laughs once again, and Seungmin is once again aware of how close Haze is holding him. He swears that he was a few inches farther just a few seconds ago. Haze leans back, not too far but far enough for his dark eyes to look at Seungmin's astonished ones.

"You..."

Haze rubs his nose against Seungmin's, his smirk turning into a soft smile. "Yes, darling?"

"You..."

"Forgive me for ringing the alarm. I just wanted you to myself for a while." Haze whispered as he let their noses touch for a few extra seconds before leaning away to properly look at Seungmin's still wide eyes. Haze smiled, thinking that he looked like a puppy.

 _Fucking telekinesis._ Seungmin thinks, among many other things, as he feels himself melt under Haze’s touch, under Haze’s gaze.

Haze's eyes flicker down to Seungmin's mouth, parted slightly as he still tried to fit pieces together. Without tearing his eyes away from Seungmin's pouty lips, Haze sighs.

"I really want to kiss you right now."

That throws Seungmin off his daze, blinking his eyes back to Haze's. He lifts one hand, resting his fingers on Haze's chin and tilting the trickster's gaze back to him. He forces himself to look past the dark eyes and focus, mentally praising himself when he found his voice.

"You know who I am." Seungmin stated, completely ignoring Haze's words despite his insides melting and twisting.

Haze's smile becomes a little lopsided as he nodded, nuzzling his chin in Seungmin's fingers. He winks. "I'll see you later tonight. Unlike you, I'm running on borrowed time."

Haze leans forward, pressing a soft, warm kiss on Seungmin's cheek before letting go of him and running off. Seungmin takes a step back, the lack of support from Haze's hands throwing him off-balanced for a quick second before he catches himself.

He holds on to his heart, his breathing unstable as he leans his shoulder against the wall for support. His mind was whirling with the past few minutes, Haze’s last sentence reminding Seungmin that time wasn’t frozen, that someone could have walked up on them and saw their exchange. Seungmin wouldn’t be the only one confused as hell if that was the case.

Once again, he was confused and frustrated. But most of all, he just wanted to kiss that pretty smirk off of Haze's lips.


	22. Chapter 22

"There you are. I was starting to worry."

Not two minutes after Haze leaves, Seungmin is still frozen in his spot for Jisung to find. He shakes the boy from behind, hands on his shoulders. At first Jisung thought that Seungmin was with someone, but after a few more steps closer, he’d realized that the boy was frozen in place.

“Seungmin?”

Jisung was exposed to superpowers more than the average unsuperpower-ed human, so when he doesn’t receive a response from Seungmin, worry settles in his features, wondering if his friend was attacked.

Seungmin shakes his head in an attempt to shake Haze's effect off of him, obviously to no avail. He blinks to his side, confusion looking back at Jisung’s worry. Seungmin didn’t notice Jisung walk up to him. How long was he there? "I..."

"Are you alright?" Jisung's voice matches his concerned eyes as he turns Seungmin to face him and starts examining the boy. He goads at Seungmin’s arms and shoulder, checking if he was hurt anywhere. “Seungmin, are you okay?”

"No, I... wait, I mean, yes, I am." Seungmin fumbled for words. "Just... my mind is a mess."

His heart was even messier, he thought, as his hand clutched onto the cloth under his blazer tighter, as if it would make his heart calm down. If anything, it just made Seungmin feel his heartbeat even more, the thumping vibrating through his fingers in a steady yet fast-paced rhythm.

“Mess how?” Jisung asked, clearly thinking more into the lines of him being under a spell or stunned by a villain he found running around the halls.

Seungmin looks at Jisung, realizing what Jisung meant. He shakes his head. “No, nothing like that. Just... just stuff.”

"Let's get you back to class." Jisung mumbles, wanting to get Seungmin in his room before the gym doors open and students start filing out again. It took Jisung a few minutes after Seungmin slipped out to realize that it was a false alarm, but he need not wait for the teachers and firefighters to confirm the obvious.

Jisung holds on to Seungmin's shoulders, not wanting to pry and ask what happened. It was obvious that his thoughts were flying everywhere.

"Jisung." Seungmin mumbled, which made the boy stop. He turns Seungmin to him again. Seungmin is suddenly reminded of Minho’s curt nod and close-lipped smile, telling him that it was okay to open up to him. If Seungmin wasn’t so worked up about Haze’s kiss, he’d have laughed at their similarities.

"Yeah?" Jisung asked.

Seungmin pouts subtly, this time intentional. "I already talked to Minho about this but I wanted your side, too."

Jisung’s brows furrowed, not knowing why his boyfriend was suddenly mentioned. "What is it?"

Seungmin is silent, racking his brain for the right words to use. He decided to use words similar to the ones he used on Minho. "Why did you fall in love with someone with powers?"

Jisung’s reaction is different from Minho’s shy smile. Jisung lets out a full smile, his shoulder hiking up as a sign of a stifled chuckle. "Because it was Minho."

Seungmin pauses before bursting into laughter, leaning into Jisung for support from how much he was shaking because of his chuckles. It was enough to pull him out of his reverie, the only memory of Haze being the tingling feeling on his cheek where Haze’s lips touched, but even that was masked by Seungmin’s fit of giggles.

Jisung huffed in lieu a laugh. "Yeah, yeah, I know. It's cheesy."

"I'm l-laughing because you said t-the same thing." Seungmin wheezed, holding on to Jisung’s arm in the middle of his laughing.

Jisung smiled fondly, feeling warmth in his chest when he realized what Seungmin had said. "It's true. It didn't matter to me that he had powers or things like that. I just wanted to be with him. And it's not that I had my suspicions, I was completely clueless before he told me."

"You're clueless about most things." Seungmin snorted, hand loosening around Jisung’s arm.

"Exactly. So not only is this easier for you because _you_ have powers, it's also easier for Hyunjin because he's not as clueless as me." Jisung shrugged.

Seungmin’s hand falls from Jisung’s arm, his laughter dying down as fast as it came. "I never said anything about Hyunjin."

"I'm clueless, but I'm not _that_ clueless. You've been crushing on him since Felix introduced you two." Jisung spoke as if it was common knowledge.

"I was not!" Seungmin’s gasp was half fake and half genuine, for reasons he didn’t know. He was sure that he didn’t start crushing on Hyunjin off the bat, but he was aware that he was pushing feelings away for longer than he wanted to admit.

"What, really? Thought you were." Jisung's voice wasn't teasing or suggestive, more like completely accepting the fact that he thought wrong.

"How did you feel? When you found out he had powers?" Seungmin changed the subject. The brisk beating of his heart was there again, and he wanted to compose it before he really did have trouble breathing.

"I honestly had no idea what to say. But a few weeks before he told me, I had a run in with Shift. And when he told me he was Shift, that day just came rushing back and, I kissed him.” Jisung said, leaning against the lockers as he told his story. “It's just... that short time with Shift just made so much more sense than thinking Shift was that familiar with everyone in the city."

Seungmin lets Jisung’s words sink in. Maybe it was the same as with Minho; that he won’t be able to fully understand until he was in that exact situation. The situation being a confrontation scene, some combination of Seungmin and Tempo and Hyunjin and Haze.

Seungmin was pretty sure that Hyunjin was Haze. He wasn’t blind.

"Seungmin! There you are!" Felix's voice cuts through Jisung and Seungmin and Felix glomps Seungmin, Jisung having to support Seungmin's back so the two boys wouldn't fall to the floor.

"He was pretty worried about you, especially when Jisung said your parents pulled you out." Hyunjin said as he walked up to them. Seungmin holds Hyunjin's gaze, his heart once again going crazy despite it not fully calming down yet. The lights in the hallway reflected in Hyunjin’s eyes even when he was still a couple of meters away. Maybe it was just Seungmin that could see it.

Felix pulls away and looks at Seungmin worriedly. "Are you okay? Your heart is beating so fast."

Seungmin turns to Felix, completely missing the way Hyunjin's lips tug upwards when he hears what Felix said. "Yeah, I just... the fire alarm gave me a scare."

"You and Hyunjin both. He was in the bathroom when it went off." Felix said as he let go of Seungmin, taking a step away from him so they could both stand properly.

"Oh." Seungmin said, tone blank. He refused to shift his eyes from Felix to Hyunjin, not wanting to check if the smirk he was convinced was there really was.

"Get to class, boys." a teacher tells them as he passes by, a small group of students in tow, assumedly his students.

Seungmin realized that they were outside Jisung’s classroom, his classmates already filing in one by one along with the other students roaming the halls. Seungmin turns to Jisung and wordlessly waves goodbye to the boy, the corners of his eyes catching the way Hyunjin and Felix followed suit from each of his sides.

"Let's get back to the room." Hyunjin tells them as he places a hand on Seungmin's back, silently urging the boy to take steps forward. Seungmin tensed under Hyunjin’s touch before inevitably relaxing, finding the warmth of Hyunjin’s contact awfully comforting.

Seungmin gulps down the feeling of the butterflies in his stomache when he realizes that Hyunjin's warm hand on his back was (almost painfully) familiar to Haze's.


	23. Chapter 23

Tempo runs past the rooftops, passing by a few alleys for good measure. He’s seen a few shoplifters tonight, but payed them no mind, instead of letting them run off and paying for what they’ve taken. His thoughts have consumed him with musings of Haze and the bittersweet contemplation of whether or not he wanted to see the boy tonight.

On one hand, he wanted to avoid him tonight. He was sure that Haze’s effect on him was perilous, with the fast-paced heartbeat and the shortening of his breaths and the train wrecks that were his thoughts. He felt jittery and giddy but at the same time weak. He could easily be convinced that Haze had a power he left out, something about being blindingly charming and irresistible.

On the other hand, he wanted to see Haze. He wanted to confront him, talk to him, _see_ him. He wanted to see if what happened this afternoon was a ‘to be continued’ or an open ending altogether. He wanted to see him, and that was the only point of that side of the argument.

But Tempo’s contemplations prove to be paltry when he remembers that seeing Haze was never his choice to begin with. He showed up out of nowhere and stayed. He found Tempo every night, and he was going to find him again tonight.

When Haze finds him that night, it's on top of a French restaurant that Seungmin can vaguely remember was where Felix and Changbin had their 4th monthsarry date. The black-clothed boy just drops in, not more than three feet in front of Tempo, and Tempo takes a small step back, suddenly feeling the tips of his ears and the crests of his cheeks go warm.

Haze tilts his head, the corners of his lips tilting the other way. Tempo thanks the heavens that his mask covered enough of his face to properly hide his otherwise obvious blush.

"I was looking all over for you, darling." Haze said, the usual touch of leer and cheekiness in his voice. He takes one step forward, almost as if testing how much Tempo was willing to let him get away with tonight.

"Well, you found me." he shrugged. He wanted to comment about how Haze had found him outside of being Tempo, too, but he bit his tongue before he could make the remark.

Tempo looks anywhere but at Haze, and that makes a pout appear on the taller as he takes another step forward. He doesn’t see the blush on Tempo’s cheeks, the violet mask doing a great job of keeping it hidden.

"You're not looking at me." he pouted. "You said you'd keep your eyes on me."

"Kind of hard to do now, you know." Tempo whispered, eyes flickering to meet Haze's before looking away again. The half second was enough for Haze to see the uncertainty and slight anxiety in Tempo's eyes, and it was enough for Tempo to see the concern in Haze's.

"Is this about earlier?" Haze asked. His voice was bereft of any amusement, his words suddenly tinged with concern and worry. "I'm sorry. I just... missed you. And I saw you walking around with your friend and I wanted your attention. I didn’t mean to upset you."

Tempo stopped himself from scoffing. He wasn’t scoffing at Haze, or because of anything that the taller had done. He was scoffing at himself, for being unable to find the will in him to at least be annoyed.

He can't even bring himself to be angry at Haze, to be even the least bit annoyed that he craved his attention so much that he did it when Seungmin was off the clock, no matter how flexible his working schedule was. It was ridiculous, how tightly he found himself wrapped around Haze's finger without even realizing until it was too late.

"Since when have you known?" he asked, trying to put as much emotion in his voice to tell Haze that he wasn’t mad, just curious.

Haze plays with his fingers, looking down at his nails. "A while..."

"Oh." Tempo exhaled. The answer wasn’t as specific as Tempo hoped for, but he didn’t want to push anymore. He had other things to ask an explanation of.

"I won't tell." Haze said, still sounding like a scolded child. He failed to meet Tempo’s eyes, and that made it easier for Tempo to look at Haze.

"I know." Tempo walks over the edge of the rooftop, swinging his legs over the ledge of the back of the restaurant so he was seated on the cement. His back was turned to Haze, but he could feel the wavering gaze on him, looking at him before somewhere else then back at him and then not.

"I should be mad at you but I'm not." he said as he heard Haze's footsteps pacing nearer to him. "I've known you enough to know you don't want to hurt me."

Haze has said it once himself, that he didn’t want to hurt Tempo, but even without the statement, he made it clear in his actions that he truly did not have any ill intent. That eased Tempo’s worries more than it should, knowing that a bad person wasn’t the one that found him out. Being exposed means risking his friends and family, and Tempo would be damned before anyone he cared about got hurt because of him.

"You talk as if you know who I really am." Haze’s feet stop. He’s still a few paces away from where Tempo was seated, but they could both already feel the magnetic pull that drew them closer to each other.

"Do I not?" the way Tempo asked made it obvious that he really was asking. He wasn’t condescending or accusing, wasn’t sarcastic. He was curious, making sure that he was on the right track. He looked back at Haze, eyes challenging him to answer the question.

He was asking if he knew who Haze really was, plain and simple. He was asking if Haze was Hyunjin, the only other boy that can make him feel as confused and frustrated and ridiculous as Haze can.

When Haze doesn't answer, when he just keeps Tempo's gaze, Tempo smiles a small lopsided smile and cocks his head to the space next to him. "Come here. You're too far."

Tempo goes back to looking down at the alley that separated the back of the French restaurant and the back of a coffee shop. The scents mixed in the air, giving it a hint of expensive class and a hint of comforting mornings.

He feels Haze sit next to him, and his heart stops for a second before it restarts.

"You really are such a flirt, you know." Tempo starts, a phantom of a laugh in his tone. "What if it wasn't me earlier? We can't risk some random person falling for you."

The thought of a random student running into Haze, falling into Haze’s arms like he did earlier, left a bitter taste in Seungmin’s mouth that he’d very much rather spit out than swallow.

Haze chuckled, the laugh once again carrying its usual touch of coy and cheeky. He looked at Tempo with nothing short of sincerity, wanting nothing but to make him know that his words were true despite his languid attitude. "I knew it was you, darling. You don't have to worry about some unsuspecting teenager falling in love with me."

"Who knows, maybe that would get you away from me." Tempo shrugged, not at all meaning his words.

"Never. It will always be you." Haze said, turning away from Tempo and back at the alley separating the restaurant and cafe. "Just like it will always be me."

Tempo turns to face Haze, wanting to ask what he meant, when he suddenly felt like he was close to once again drowning in his eyes. Once again, he's hit with an overwhelming urge to make time freeze just so that he can take a breather before having to face those deep browns again. Those deep browns with the slightest specks of chocolate browns are a weakness for him, he realized long before, but its effects have never hit him as much as they did now.

Maybe once, a few weeks ago, when it was Hyunjin's eyes he was drowning in. But then again, it was one and the same— he was lost in a pair of eyes he’d be able to recognize no matter what.

"Darling?" Haze asked a few seconds later, whisking Tempo from his thoughts. He’d gone silent, and Haze desperately wanted to know what the musings going through his mind were.

"Did you mean it?" Tempo's voice was barely above a whisper, and his mask covered the way his eyes flickered to Haze's full lips before back to his eyes. His heart skipped a beat when his eyes flickered down, so he instantly fluttered them upwards in fear of his heart stopping altogether.

"Mean what?"

"What you said." Tempo whispered, lifting the hand further from Haze and pinching his chin between two fingers, much like he did earlier.

Recognition flashes in Haze's eyes as he recalls what elicited such a reaction from him earlier. His lips curl into a warm smile. Unlike Tempo's, Haze's mask didn't do a good job of covering Haze's eyes when they flickered to Tempo's lips.

"For longer than I care to admit." Haze confessed, inching closer. His nose grazed Tempo's, gently, softly, as if he was afraid that if he moved too impulsively, Tempo would break out of whatever spell he put himself under.

Tempo can feel his heart drumming in his ears. He was worried that Haze can hear it, too, but he reminded himself that he didn't have heightened senses like Minho did.

He wondered if his heartbeat can be heard by the college student from where he was patrolling on the other side of the city. He wondered if his heartbeat was loud enough that Haze could hear it even without enhanced senses.

"Darling?" Haze's breath fans above Tempo's lips, and Tempo gulps, eyes fluttering close. The way Haze spoke was simple, asking for permission, giving Tempo a way out before they sealed whatever deal they were making, if ever they were making one.

But Tempo didn't want a way out. If it was Haze, or Hyunjin, he didn't want a way out. He wanted to get lost. He wanted to be pulled in even more.

So Tempo's fingers move from Haze's chin to his palm on his nape, pulling him closer by the inches they were apart, pressing his lips against his in a firm kiss.

He feels Haze's hands on his waist to keep steady, being pulled closer harder than he expected.


	24. Chapter 24

"Darling?" Haze's breath fans above Tempo's lips, and Tempo gulps, eyes fluttering close. The way Haze spoke was simple, asking for permission; giving Tempo a way out before they sealed whatever deal they were making, if ever they were making one.

But Tempo didn't want a way out. If it was Haze, or Hyunjin, he didn't want a way out. He wanted to get lost. He wanted to be pulled in even more.

So Tempo's fingers move from Haze's chin to his palm on his nape, pulling him closer by the inches they were apart, pressing his lips against his in a firm kiss.

He feels Haze's hands on his waist to keep steady, being pulled closer harder than he expected.

Tempo feels his heart buzzing in his chest and his blood running through his veins as if they were tears rolling off his cheeks. His eyes were already closed but he felt as if he could see stars. He's already breathless, and Haze had barely done anything.

But then Haze does something. He pulls Tempo closer, his lips moving against Tempo's in a way that was too sweet and gentle that Tempo felt his insides turn as if he had chewed on one too many sugar cubes and was on the verge of a sugar high.

Tempo sighs, leaning into Haze's touch as his fingers inch up to Haze's hair, tugging on it carefully.

Honey, he suddenly remembers. It felt as if he drank a big jar of purest, sweetest honey but he was desperate for another dose.

"Tell me who you are?" he asks, breathless, between kisses. He meant to break the kiss entirely, but he pulled himself back in before he can take half a breath.

"Not yet." Haze replies, just as breathless, but doesn't break the kiss longer than their words would allow. "Not yet."

Tempo doesn't push, just lets himself melt into Haze as he lifts his other hand and lets his fingers tangle in Haze's hair. The strands were soft against Tempo’s fingers, and he was sure that running his hand through it would soon be a habit if he wasn’t careful.

Haze licks Tempo's bottom lip, and the latter lets out a chuckle, breaking the kiss. Haze chases after his lips, and he turns his head enough that he feels Haze's lips on his cheek.

"Darling, you can't turn away from me now." Haze whispers, pressing his forehead against Tempo's temple. His hands are still steady on his waist, and Tempo's heart flutters at the sense of security it brings him.

He chuckles, the hand on his nape dropping to Haze's shoulder as the other one continues to play with his hair, loving how soft the strands felt against his skin as he twirled it around his fingers and tugged on them gently between seconds and moments.

He still hears his heart pounding in his chest, although he can admit to forgetting it was beating so loud. All he could register was Haze. Haze’s kiss-swollen lips, Haze’s dark eyes looking at him fondly, Haze’s hair in his fingers, Haze’s hands on his waist.

"I don't think I can even if I tried." Tempo answered, a different type of breathless.

"Good. Because I'm not allowing you to. Not after you kissed me like that." Haze whispered as he pressed his lips on Tempo’s mask. The barely-there vibrations of Haze speaking brings a gasp from Tempo’s lips.

Tempo bites on his lip, completely grateful that his mask covered his blush, but then he feels Haze lift his head, then he feels teeth on the shell of his ear, nibbling on the sensitive skin carefully. He can take a guess that Haze saw the red on his ears.

"Are you done for tonight?" Haze asked, whispering in his ear like he did earlier in the day. It sends shivers down Tempo's spine, knocking the breath out of him before he could even collect himself again.

Knowing his voice was still shaky, he nods, settling on a hum. "Mn."

"I'll take you home." Haze says, his tone high enough to be musing.

"You know where I live, too? You really are a stalker, aren't you?” he joked as he felt a kiss on his ear, then he's being lifted from his seat, not by Haze's mind, but his arms. He was about to make a comment about Haze cheating and using telekinesis to carry him when he remembered that Haze had above average strength. Lifting Tempo didn’t even merit a bat of an eye.

His hold on Haze’s neck tightens as the boy looks at him with the same fond eyes he did when he first opened his eyes after their kiss. "I'll pretend you didn't say that."

Haze rubs his nose against Tempo's in an eskimo kiss, and Tempo pats Haze's shoulder, asking him to put him down. "You don't have to carry me."

"I want to, darling."

Tempo pouts, and he sees the way Haze instantly melts at the sight. With that, Haze sighs in defeat, and Tempo’s pout morphs into a grin, feeling his feet on top of the cement.

He smiled triumphantly at Haze, a silent boasting that he got what he wanted. Haze’s hand is still laid on his waist, and he uses that to pull Tempo close and press a kiss on the hero’s hair.

"Just one of those pouts of your's and the world will be at your feet." Haze inhales Tempo's scent, letting his heart warm at the smell of strawberries that Tempo's shampoo had.

"Lead the way." Tempo chuckles as he leans away from Haze enough to look at his eyes. "You know where I live, right?"

\----------

Haze was seated on the thin railing of Seungmin's balcony. When they reached his apartment, he ran inside, throwing his mask off and pulling on his sleepwear before walking back to his balcony and seeing the dark eyes and red lips that he'd kissed half an hour ago.

Seungmin hums, pressing his cheek on Haze's arm as he looks up at the trickster. He was tracing shapes into the sleeve of Haze’s silk suit with his fingertips. The touch made Haze gasp every minute, but it was inaudible to both of them despite being caught up with each other.

"When will you tell me who you are?" Seungmin hummed idly. The question wasn’t loaded; it was the barest minimum that a question can be.

"Do you not know yet?" Haze chuckles. He was looking down at Seungmin with as much fondness and affection that his stunned mind can muster. The feeling of Seungmin’s lips still lingered on his lips, and the memory did nothing to help him think straight.

Seungmin hums again, his tone adopting the same cheekiness that Haze spoke with. "I've had my guesses."

“Tell me who?” he tilted his head as he asked.

“Why should I?" Seungmin asked back, a small subconscious pout appearing on his face.

"So that I'd know if you're right."

"Then it wouldn't be a surprise."

"Surprise me, then." Haze winks, his lips pulling into a smirk.

Haze steals another kiss from Seungmin before he leaves, not that Seungmin won't give it to him before he even asked. He was too far gone, Seungmin had finally admitted to himself.

The kiss was quick, just a peck. A goodnight kiss, Haze justified after he pulled away. Seungmin only giggled, the only explanation he wanted was the reason how the boy in front of him made his heart go crazy and calm at the same time.

Seungmin watched Haze's figure disappear into the night, his last words echoing in the night as he turned to retire for bed.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, darling. I miss you already.”

How either of them had fallen asleep that night, with their blushes apple red and their grins as big as a cheshire's, hearts racing in their chests and thoughts whirling, was beyond them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried ㅠㅠ


	25. Chapter 25

Seungmin gets to school half an hour early. He makes a beeline for his seat, taking out his notebook and starting on the homework that he completely forgot about last night.

Who can blame him for forgetting about his homework? Between being a model student and a superhero, he had no extra time. And even if he did have extra time last night, he spent it in the company of a black-silked boy, and that was more important that homework, in Seungmin’s book.

In the middle of his writing, he feels a hand on his shoulder. The touch is gentle and firm at the same time. He looks up just as the hand squeezes on his shoulder, demanding for his undivided attention when Seungmin took a second too long to react.

"Hey." Hyunjin smiles brightly despite the early hour. He winks at Seungmin, and that action made Seungmin bite down a blush that was threatening to creep up his cheeks.

"Hey. Good morning." Seungmin says, almost the same type of breathless from last night.

He blinks himself out of his daze, motioning to the empty chair next to him where Felix sat. He turned back to Hyunjin, schooling his features into one that he knew was almost hard to say no to. "Sit here?"

Hyunjin smiled as his hand moved from Seungmin’s shoulder to his cheek, pinching on it. "Okay."

Hyunjin just watches as Seungmin finishes his homework, cheek on his fist and elbow on Felix's table. He watched as Seungmin’s pen moved on the paper of his notebook. He smiled to himself when he saw the furrow in Seungmin’s brow when he thought of a word to write, and when Seungmin would look through his eyelashes to check if Hyunjin was looking at him.

"Why are you staring at me?" Seungmin asked as he wrote, not lifting his gaze from the written words.

"I just want to." Hyunjin whispered low enough that only the two of them could hear. Seungmin goes to look at Hyunjin, and the latter just offers a leery smile whilst Seungmin's brow twitches. To any of their classmates, they looked as if the space between them held a secret, which wasn’t far off. Hyunjin's eyes are challenging, something that Seungmin was easily able to pick up on. But he wasn't going to fold so easily. If Haze wanted a surprise, then Seungmin was going to deliver.

"Okay, then." Seungmin said and looked back down to his homework. Hyunjin chuckles, and when the sound reaches Seungmin’s ears, he bites down a giddy smile.

When Felix gets to school, Hyunjin is still giving Seungmin that fond, endearing look whilst Seungmin reads over his notes for a different subject. He’d already finished with his forgotten homework, but he decided that he wanted to tease Hyunjin, so he whipped out a random notebook and began to look over his notes, trying his best to ignore the looks that Hyunjin threw his way.

"What's happening?" Felix asked, amused. The sight of someone openly ogling at his best friend was unusual for him, and it was enough to elicit a laugh as he studied the look of genuine adoration that Hyunjin had.

"Did something happen last night, or...?" Felix asked as his eyes flickered from Seungmin back to Hyunjin, who spared him a glance in return.

"What do you mean?" Seungmin asked, not looking up from his notebook. His tone wasn’t as frenetic as his heart was last night, and he praised himself for being able to put up a calm front despite Hyunjin’s stares.

"Well, the mood is certainly a _tad_ different from yesterday." Felix pinched his fingers together for emphasis. He was sure that Hyunjin’s staring at Seungmin and Seungmin pretending not to notice was done a few meters away yesterday, and now they were at an arm’s length.

"Is it?" Hyunjin’s question was amused. He was still looking at Seungmin. He knows that Seungmin can feel the unspoken challenge in his tone and stare. He was urging Seungmin to fold, wanting to see what Seungmin was going to say.

"I don't think so." Seungmin answered, chuckling. He lifts his head to meet Hyunjin's eyes, the same challenging look from earlier now in his stare. He was priding himself for not folding. He felt rather playful today, wanting to tease as much as he can manage.

Hyunjin gets the message, narrowing his eyes at Seungmin as he drops his arm from Felix's table, his lips tugging upward just barely. Hyunjin tilts his head to the side, Seungmin doing the same, with an addition of a raised eyebrow.

"What?" Seungmin feigned a deadpanned expression.

Hyunjin laughed in defeat. "Nothing. I'll get to my seat now."

He stands from Felix’s chair, flashing his palms, a gesture that almost looked like jazz hands but not quite. It was an indication that he folded, and that earned a cute giggle from Seungmin.

"Seriously, did something happen yesterday?" Felix asks as he sits down. His eyes were trailing after Hyunjin’s retreating figure as the taller walked to the back of the classroom.

"I wasn't with Hyunjin yesterday, so I don't know what you mean." Seungmin, loud enough for Hyunjin to hear. Hyunjin looks back at Seungmin on his way to his seat, brow twitching at what Seungmin said. He stifles a disbelieving snort, not knowing whether he was convinced that Seungmin really did not know or if he was convinced that Seungmin was playing with him.

When Seungmin is sure that Hyunjin is back in his seat, he lets out a laugh, closing his notebook and facing Felix, giving the boy a beaming smile. "Hi."

"Hi?" Felix raised a perplexed brow at his friend. When he figured that Seungmin had nothing else to say, he huffs out a bewildered laugh. "Seriously, what is up with you? You're glowing."

Seungmin only laughs, feeling a touch of pink bloom on the apples of his cheeks as he remembers the events of last night. "Am I?"

Felix gushes, reaching forward to cup Seungmin's cheeks. "You are!"

He leans forward, close to Seungmin after he takes a glance at Hyunjin who was looking out the window. "Is It Hyunjin? Something happened, right?"

Seungmin laughs again, letting Felix squeeze his cheeks together. "I told you, I wasn't with Hyunjin last night."

Felix drops his hands, deciding to also drop the subject. He takes another look at Hyunjin, seeing how his ears were the same shade of pink that Seungmin's cheeks were. He snickers, knowing that his friends would tell them soon enough.

* * *

“Hyunjin, good.” Felix beamed when the final bell of the day rang and Hyunjin has walked up to his and Seungmin’s place. He smiles at Hyunjin and Seungmin. “Do you wanna hang out at Changbin’s? You’re not doing anything later, right?”

“I’m down.” Hyunjin shrugged nonchalantly as he places a hand on Seungmin’s shoulder, unnoticed by the other two boys.

Seungmin thinks it over, wanting to go home early and sleep before setting out for patrol, but he feels the hand on his shoulder clench, a silent request, a quiet nudge that he had to. Seungmin glances up at Hyunjin’s impassive expression before smiling at Felix.

“Yeah, sound’s great.” Seungmin feels another squeeze on his shoulder, and he knows that Hyunjin’s impassive smile is replaced by his beaming smile.

Changbin and Jeongin are waiting outside of their classroom, and they all take the bus to Changbin’s house after Jeongin whines that he was too lazy to walk for 20 minutes. Backed up with Seungmin’s own half-hearted whines, the other three could do nothing to protest.

After some snacks, Jeongin goes home. Felix and Changbin are in the kitchen, whilst Hyunjin and Seungmin are in the living room, looking through the movies Changbin had downloaded on his television.

Hyunjin lays his head on Seungmin's shoulder, asking him to look for an action movie so that Felix and Changbin wouldn't be compelled to act so lovey-dovey in front of them. Seungmin chortles at the logic.

"Shut up. I know you like sappy romance movies." Seungmin comments as he continues to navigate through romantic comedies.

"Sappy and romantic is my thing." Hyunjin whispers, tilting his head so that he spoke in Seungmin's ear.

"I figured." Seungmin mused. Hyunjin’s proximity made his heart crazy again, and he was worried that the boy could feel it from where he was pressed against Seungmin’s side.

"Hmm." Hyunjin hummed mindlessly, turning his head back to the television instead of to Seungmin.

"Felix is right." Hyunjin mumbles after a beat of silence.

Seungmin’s brows furrowed at the non sequitur. "What do you mean?"

Hyunjin turns his head again to whisper in Seungmin’s ear, and Seungmin’s breath is caught in his throat when he feels Hyunjin’s lips accidentally brush on the skin of his ear as he spoke.

"You _are_ glowing." Hyunjin simpers, his lips brushing against Seungmin's ear. Hyunjin’s heart was warm for the whole day, seeing the constant pink in Seungmin’s cheeks and the easy smile he had plastered on without realizing. He stopped himself from swooning during lunch, when he saw how bright Seungmin’s eyes reflected the cafeteria eyes as he laughed over some joke that Changbin cracked.

"I am?" Seungmin mused. He thought against speaking long sentences, knowing his voice would come out shaky and dazed.

"You always shine bright, darling. But you're glowing brighter today." Hyunjin remarks after tilting his head back to the television. He spoke as if he said those words every day, as if those words didn’t have the butterflies in Seungmin’s stomache rioting like there was no tomorrow.

The remote in his hand shakes before he regains his composure. The endearnment triggered a rote reaction from Seungmin, one that made him feel giddy. He turns to Hyunjin, leaning back so that they were still a hand away. Feeling the movement, Hyunjin lifts his head from Seungmin’s shoulder and turns to him. Seungmin smirks, something he's picked up from Haze.

"I'm not folding." he mumbles before bumping Hyunjin farther away from him. Hyunjin laughs, catching himself before his back could hit the couch.

Seungmin bites back a smile as he hears the laugh. He revels in the hiccup in his heart, knowing that he was getting used to being flustered around Hyunjin.


	26. Chapter 26

In the end, Hyunjin and Seungmin were unable to pick a movie to watch. The four flipped through random channels until Seungmin decided that he should make a quick sweep of the city before heading home. Hyunjin left a few minutes after Seungmin did, saying that he was tired and wanted to sleep early.

Felix and Changbin bought the excuses, now left curled up on the couch as a historical drama played in the background. Felix was giggling from where he was latched on Changbin’s chest, Changbin paying more attention to his boyfriend than the television.

“You should have seen them, Binnie.” Felix recalled the sight he walked in on earlier in the day. “I think they’re hiding something from us. You don’t think they’re dating, do you? Oh my God, why wouldn’t they tell us?!”

Changbin laughed at Felix’s offended face as he leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss on Felix’s pursed lips. “I don’t think they’re dating. They’ll tell us when they are.”

Felix nodded and started to play with his fingers, a habit that had Changbin giving Felix his undivided attention. “Probably. I still can’t believe that Seungmin likes Hyunjin, though. Well, I think he does? But he never made it obvious before, so it might be new. And all this time, I thought Hyunjin’s crush on Seungmin was a joke, but it clearly isn’t, judging from how he looked at Seungmin earlier? Oh, he’s in love. I wonder how long he...”

Felix trails off as he lifts his head from his fingers to the glass door a couple of meters from the couch. It led to the Changbin’s balcony, and Felix heard something drop on it. When Felix stops talking, Changbin’s brows furrow, but when he looks to where Felix’s eyes are trained, he sees what made his boyfriend stop mid-sentence.

Tempo was standing on his balcony, and he would have missed the hero altogether if he didn’t look when he did, because Tempo was once again jumping, probably to the balcony next to his, which Changbin was sure was a far reach.

“I wonder what it’s like to have powers.” Felix hummed, amused, before resting his head on Changbin’s chest and going back to the show playing on the television.

Before Changbin could reply, he sees a blur of black and a little white go after the violet. The boy’s steps are light, as if he was defying gravity in some way. He came and went as fast as Tempo had.

Changbin places his chin on top of Felix’s head, humming a belated reply.

Tempo is running through the balconies, trying to get as much distance between him and Haze as possible. He didn't have heightened hearing, but he was pretty sure that Haze's giggles reached his ears despite the distance and the noise of a busy Thursday night.

He didn’t last ten minutes in patrol before Haze showed up, and Tempo quickly made a run for it, yelling behind him that, “No, no! I’m on patrol, at least give me half an hour!”

His whine was returned with an airy. “But I found you!”

He jumps, but his feet don't reach the ground. He yelps, wanting to kick around in the air but he's stuck in place. He hasn’t been victim to Haze’s telekinesis often, but enough times for him to grow familiar to the feeling of the invisible hold.

He growls, gamely and lightly. "Haze, that's a foul!"

Haze chuckles as he jumps onto the rooftop that Tempo wanted to get onto.

He winks as he brings the suspended boy into his arms. Tempo feels the telekinetic hold on him disappear when he was a mere three inches above Haze’s outstretched arms, dropping him into the trickster’s hold. "All's fair in love and war, darling."

Tempo kicks around languidly, not enough for Haze to put him down. He laughs, throwing his head back as he decides to tease the boy carrying him. "You know, there was this boy that called me that earlier. God, if only he knew that I was already your darling."

A smile tugs at Haze's lips as he looks down at the laughing hero. " _My_ darling?"

He tilts his head, not commenting on how everything else he said was momentarily ignored. The sweet pitch that came out of Haze’s mouth rendered him momentarily speechless before he schooled another musing expression. "I thought that's what you wanted."

"It is." Haze hummed cheekily. He adjusted his hold on Tempo so that the both of them were more comfortable. "That boy better keep his distance, then."

"I don't know..." he mooned, his feet still kicking lazily in the air as Haze walks to the center or the rooftop. ”he's a pretty close friend. And unlike you, I actually know who he is?"

"Do you now?" Haze quipped, amusement laced in his words as he looked at Tempo with the same amusement.

Tempo huffs a chuckle. "Well, I like to think I do. At least he doesn't go around playing games with me just to get my attention."

Haze laughs and throws a wink at Tempo. "Sure, darling."

Tempo laughs in reply, his arm still lazily wrapped around Haze’s shoulders in an unbelievable attempt to hold on. He knew that he wasn’t going to get dropped.

"You're done with patrol, aren't you? I'll take you home." Haze smiled.

"I barely covered three streets before you showed up." Tempo groaned, throwing his head back in a whine.

"Time to go home, then." Haze laughed as he watched the hero whine. It seemed that he was whining the whole day, which wasn’t good for Haze’s heart.

"Put me down, Haze." Tempo whines as he lifts his head to look at the trickster. His feet start kicking in the air again in a languorous manner.

Haze pouts, shoulders dropping for effect. He knows that he’d relent to Tempo’s wishes inevitably, but there was no harm in prolonging the inevitable if he could hold the hero in his arms for an extra second.

Tempo kicks again, harder this time. "I'm not a baby, I can stand."

Haze drew in a breath, planning to match the timbre of Tempo’s yowl. "You're my baby."

"I'm your darling, not your baby." Tempo contradicted with a snotty voice, the corners of his lips pulling into a subtle smile. His legs fall limp on Haze’s arms again, his calves growing tired from the mindless kicking.

"You're mine, either way." Haze teased, his voice wavering into a sing-song tone.

Tempo throws his head back again, donning a contemplative look. The arm that wasn’t around Haze’s shoulders lifts so that he could tap his pointer finger on his chin. "I don't know... I still don't know who you are yet."

"Do you really not, you little tease?" Haze puts him down and cups Tempo's cheeks, bringing his face closer that their noses were only inches away.

Tempo hums, a small pout jutting out. "You're not the only one who can play games, Haze. And you said you wanted a surprise. So who knows when I'll seek out your alter-ego?"

Haze’s eyes flicker down to Tempo’s pouted lips. He feels his smirk tug into a soft smile, wanting to feel Tempo’s lips against his again.

Before Haze can close the distance between them, Tempo winks and steps away from Haze's hold, placing a hand on Haze’s chest and pushing him away for good measure. He turns around and runs to the next rooftop, laughing as he put distance between them again.

“Hey!” Haze yells after the retreating hero. “I’m taking you home!”

“I’m on patrol, Haze!”


	27. Chapter 27

The next day at school passes by in a blur. Felix and Changbin were once again almost late after taking an impromptu stroll in the park near the school. Seungmin could feel the dark eyes watching him from the back of his head, wondering if the light and dark swirls in his pupils and irises. Lunch was uneventful, as well as his classes. Jisung didn’t call for him, which meant either there were no emergencies outside school premises or other heroes got to the culprits before he had to.

Before he knows it, Seungmin is walking back home. It's already pretty late, seeing as how he lounged in Jisung and Minho's apartment until dinner. Minho had caught him and Jisung by the school gate, the college student stubbornly insisting that Seungmin join them for dinner.

The city wasn’t packed with people like a Friday night expected. As Seungmin walks, he feels a cold shiver go down his spine; unwelcomed and unsettling. He pauses mid-step before shaking the feeling away and pressing his feet on the ground, walking a modicum faster.

Seungmin is about to turn the corner of a small bookstore when he feels the pointed edge of a blade on his lower back, then a rough voice behind him as he's led to the alley next to the shop.

"Who are you?" Seungmin’s teeth are clenched as he lets himself be jostled into the mouth of the alley.

"Don't act so brave, boy." a dark chuckle tickles his ears and Seungmin feels himself shiver again. This was anything but pleasant, though, and he was itching to land a punch on the obviously built man’s nose.

"I'm not acting." he clenches his fist as he’s pushed into the wall, his nose almost hitting the wall of the alley.

"You can hand over your wallet and be on your way. I won't hurt you, promise." the man demanded, and Seungmin feels the blade push into his side. He almost laughed, feeling the pointed tip of the knife on his thick coat. It was sharp, but Seungmin could have bullets shot at him and think of it as a poke to the chest.

"You can't hurt me even if you tried." Seungmin jeered arrogantly. He almost felt sorry for the mugger, to be so unlucky that the person that caught his eyes was him.

His clench fist flexes and he gets ready to grab onto the wrist that was holding the blade, but the man is pushed off of him and falls to the ground before he could even lift a finger. The blade falls to Seungmin's feet, landing with a loud clang a few inches next to his sneakers.

Seungmin turns around, gasping when he sees a familiar figure throwing another punch to the bulky man. Seungmin felt the force when the man was pushed away from him, and it was surprisingly strong. His eyes widened when he saw how deep into the alley the man was thrown. Two or three steps were reasonable, but the man was thrown six or seven steps deep.

Seungmin is frozen as he watches the boy hold the man by the collar with one hand, the other throwing punch after punch to the man’s face. Then it hit him, a little too late for the mugger’s consciousness, that he had to stop Hyunjin before he killed the man.

"Hyunjin! Hyunjin, stop!" Seungmin is still frozen in his spot as Hyunjin continues to pummel the man. He keeps his voice low enough for by-standers to hear, but loud enough for Hyunjin to hear, hopefully. If he hadn’t gone deaf with rage and blind with anger.

Strong. He was strong. Hyunjin didn't look lanky, but he wasn't built, either, and Seungmin was sure that his punches were stronger than the man he was hitting could ever throw. Hyunjin could kill the man if he wanted to.

Seungmin starts to see specks of dark dancing around Hyunjin, and he gasps again. He takes a step forward, nudging the fallen knife to the side, but Seungmin was too distracted to notice. He makes the seven steps deeper into the alley, rushing to Hyunjin.

"Hyunjin!" he calls frenetically as he grabs onto Hyunjin's waist, almost falling forward at the boy's strength but desperately keeping his feet on the cement. He wraps his arms around Hyunjin’s waist tighter, coaxing the boy into letting go of the man.

Hyunjin relaxes at Seungmin's touch, the fire in his eyes extinguishing as he sees the badly beaten man in front of him. His shoulders rise and fall rapidly as he catches his breath. He’s seen red until now, and he couldn’t bring himself to be shocked to see how pummeled the man was.

"Hyunjin, breathe." Seungmin reminded, his forehead pressed to the back of his shoulder. He tries his best to inject as much sentiment and delicacy in his voice as his frenetic mind would allow. He doesn’t know if his hold on Hyunjin should tighten or loosen, so he went with the former.

He pushes himself against the wall in hopes of putting more distance between Hyunjin and the man. His breathing was shallow despite not doing anything. Seeing Hyunjin’s propensity for violence made the gears in Seungmin’s head hurt. He deeply hoped that it was selective. "I'm okay. I'm okay."

Hyunjin turns around and studies Seungmin with clouded eyes. He removes Seungmin’s arms from around him, frantically looking for any injuries that Seungmin might have gotten. When he was sure that Seungmin didn’t have a scratch on him, he lifts his hands to cup Seungmin’s cheeks.

"Are you sure? You weren't hurt? That bastard didn't do anything to you, did he?" he asked despite already checking, and the venom in Hyunjin’s tone when he spoke his moniker for the man made another shiver trail down his spine, this time less unsettling that the others.

The venom in his voice was only coated with honey because his words were directed to Seungmin, but even then, Seungmin saw how he lost control, how his punches practically had the man flying to the other end of the alley.

Seungmin holds on to the hands on his cheeks, looking worriedly at Hyunjin. "You beat the crap out of him before he could do anything."

"He deserves it.” Hyunjin seethed. He made a move to turn back to the unconscious man, but Seungmin quickly tightens the hands he was holding, urging Hyunjin to keep his eyes on him. He didn’t want an epilogue to Hyunjin’s fisticuffs.

“I’m okay.” he said when Hyunjin kept his gaze. He nodded surely, offering a small smile to show Hyunjin that he meant it. “I’m okay.”

When Hyunjin calls the cops, he keeps Seungmin pressed to his side. Seungmin could feel the protectiveness radiating off of Hyunjin’s skin, but he couldn’t find it in himself to tear himself away from where he was tucked under Hyunjin’s arm.

“Hyunjin, I’m fine, really.” Seungmin reassured as Hyunjin made another quick check of his arms. Hyunjin was still guarded with the man still laying out cold on the ground, and Seungmin just let Hyunjin do whatever he wanted with him.

He could feel Hyunjin’s frenzied heartbeat, can feel the fear and anger that every punch Hyunjin gave the man was filled with. He could feel the protectiveness that Hyunjin had for him as the boy kept him tucked under his arm.

"I didn't know you could punch like that." Seungmin said as he fixed his gaze on the bloodied man. He looked horrible, and Seungmin was grateful to see the scarce movement of the man’s chest, the only indication that he was alive.

All of Seungmin’s trepidation faded away at the confirmation that Hyunjin didn’t kill a man.

"I... I forget how strong I am sometimes." Hyunjin sighed under his breath as a police car parked in front of the alley.

After the two of them are let go, Hyunjin insists that Seungmin stay the night with him. His apartment was nearer, and Hyunjin didn’t want Seungmin out alone after what happened. Seungmin let him, not wanting to go against Hyunjin’s wishes. He knew how stubborn the boy can be, and the show he put on still made Seungmin’s head pound a little.

He wasn’t scared of Hyunjin, but he was getting scared for anyone who would be audacious enough to harm him even a little.

As they walk home, Seungmin thinks back to Haze. He recalls the way Haze used his powers, of how he leaned towards dark manipulation rather than light. He figured that it was tangential with his propensity for violence; for his loss of control.

Hyunjin tucks Seungmin in bed, threading through his hair before asking Seungmin to close his eyes. Hyunjin had been silent the whole while, just gazing at Seungmin worriedly, his eyes loaded but he always decided against speaking. Seungmin figured that it might be because his actions have finally dawned on him, and he was afraid that Seungmin would look at him different.

But Seungmin wouldn’t look at him different. He was over-protective, yes, but that wasn’t enough for Seungmin to look at him differently.

"Close your eyes and sleep. I'll see you in the morning." Hyunjin hummed as his fingers left Seungmin’s hair, waiting for the boy to close his eyes before standing and retreating to his room.

Seungmin closes his eyes, already missing the way Hyunjin’s nails lightly scratched on his scalp. "Good night, Hyunjin."


	28. Chapter 28

When Seungmin wakes up that morning, it’s to the scent of the fabric softener that Hyunjin uses on his blankets. He stays in bed, his fingers gently brushing the edges of the thick blanket as he contemplated whether or not it was worth it to throw the quilt off and let the cold bite his skin.

A knock on the door cuts through his thoughts and Hyunjin walks in, letting the delicate scent of pancakes fill the air.

“Hey.” Hyunjin’s voice was airy, somehow hesitant, as he walked inside the room and watched Seungmin sit up.

“Good morning.” Seungmin offered a small smile, still sleepy.

“Are you hungry? I made pancakes.” Hyunjin’s lips tugged upwards, and Seungmin almost laughed at the small spot on his chin where pancake batter was.

Seungmin gestured for Hyunjin to come closer, pouting when the boy hesitated to lift himself from where he was leaning on the doorframe. The hesitance tugged at Seungmin’s heart in the wrong way. He couldn’t think of a reason for Hyunjin to not walk over to him, but when the taller heaves a sigh and lets out a small smile, Seungmin smiles as well.

Hyunjin pushes himself off the doorframe and walks to the bed. He lifts his hand to take the one Seungmin had outstretched as he gestured for Hyunjin to come closer, but he stops himself before Seungmin can notice what he wanted to do. His hand drops to his side and he sits on the edge of the bed.

“What is it?” Hyunjin asked, his head titled to the side in confusion. There was something different in Hyunjin’s tone, Seungmin noticed, but he dismissed it as his own drowsiness hazing his senses.

“You have batter on your chin.” Seungmin tittered softly as he swiped his pointer finger over the side of Hyunjin’s chin, wiping the batter off. He feels Hyunjin tense under his touch before relaxing on reflex, a small sigh escaping from Hyunjin’s lips.

Seungmin smiled when he finished, his hand falling on Hyunjin’s lap. “So, breakfast?”

Hyunjin stared at Seungmin for a short second before he nods, his lips pursed together. “Let’s go.”

Hyunjin stands and waits for Seungmin to get on his feet before he starts to walk out of the room. His hand is in the middle of Seungmin’s back, and the touch is too tender for Seungmin to not lean into the touch as he was guided out of the guest bedroom and into the kitchen island.

“I have basketball practice later.” Hyunjin started as he prepared their food. He shot Seungmin another look before Seungmin could begin to take a plate for himself, and Seungmin let out a tinny sigh before taking a seat and watching as Hyunjin worked. “You can come if you’d like.”

“I don’t have anything to do.” Seungmin shrugged as a plate of pancakes was placed in front of him, then an assortment of fruits and syrups that Hyunjin was laying out one-by-one. “Maybe I can take some pictures of you as you practice.”

A fond smile curves Hyunjin’s lips as he sits down across Seungmin with a plate of his own. “You go do that.”

After breakfast, Hyunjin lends Seungmin another sweater and some joggers, and Seungmin realizes that he was yet to return Hyunjin’s clothes from the last time he spent the night at his apartment. He made a mental note to return it on Monday.

“You look cute.” Hyunjin smiled when Seungmin emerged from the shower, clothed in Hyunjin’s clothes.

Seungmin feels a blush tinge his cheeks, but it’s quickly drowned by the yowl he lets out when Hyunjin ruffles his damp hair. “Hey!”

Hyunjin laughs again, slinging a gym bag over his shoulder. “Let’s go? Changbin texted me and said he just left his house.”

Seungmin and Hyunjin walked to school, and Seungmin would sneak glances at Hyunjin. His fingers scratched at his palm, itching to reach out and hold Hyunjin’s hand, but he stopped himself. Hyunjin felt different. It was like he was suddenly holding himself back, and Seungmin had to work to crack into Hyunjin’s facade when he would usually be let into Hyunjin’s walls without batting an eye.

He took pictures of Hyunjin practicing, like he promised. Hyunjin would steal glances at him throughout their practice, turning to the bleachers and smiling brightly at Seungmin when he can. It reassured Seungmin, that Hyunjin wasn’t as distant as he first thought, but he could still see the slight qualm in his chest whenever Hyunjin wouldn’t hold his stare long enough, or when his smiles didn’t tug far enough to reach his eyes, or when they were on breaks, and Hyunjin would take a second too long before touching Seungmin.

It seems as if, following the events of last night, Hyunjin took a step back. What for, Seungmin had no idea.

Seungmin hoped to get some answers from Haze, but he doesn't show up. The sun has long past gone to bed and he sees no trace of white volto masks or black silk as he circled the city aimlessly.

When he’s sure that Haze wasn’t showing up tonight, Tempo stays on top of a rooftop; the French restaurant they first kissed in, as he feels worry and frustration bubble within him. He worried that he did something wrong for the sudden change of attitude, and he was frustrated that whatever was wrong will remain inscrutable until he walked up to the boy and asked straight up asked him.

And he would much rather resort to fisticuffs than a heart-to-heart confrontation, especially if his heart was held in the other boy’s palm, for him to destroy or take care of if he chose to.

He thought of going to Hyunjin's house, as Tempo, not unlike how Haze would take him home, but not exactly. But then he realized that he didn't know what to say.

He couldn’t knock on his bedroom window and force him into confrontation, he had no idea what to say himself.

Tempo heaved a sigh. He hoped that this was just a passing phase and that Hyunjin and Haze will be back to normal come tomorrow.


	29. Chapter 29

Sunday night and Haze still doesn't show up for patrol. The night was awfully boring, too, with Tempo not running into anything criminal. He liked to think that the city has finally given in to good manners and proper conduct, but he knew that he wasn’t the only hero patrolling the nights, and they probably got to the bad people before he could.

The nights were boring without Haze popping up unexpectedly. Before this, he didn’t know where and when he’d show up, but at least he was sure that Haze would. And now, he didn’t even have that assurance anymore. He could almost laugh, remembering that he didn’t want to get used to his presence. But he has, and now he felt empty when Haze wasn’t showing up without reason.

Tempo would be worried if Changbin hadn’t texted him that afternoon, asking if he was free to hang out at his, where Hyunjin and Felix were. Jeongin was out with his cousin, and Seungmin figured that he’d rather catch up on homework than go out.

But now he was regretting it. What was a couple chapters of advanced reading compared to seeing Hyunjin?

With a sigh, Tempo throws himself to the next rooftop and heads home. It was a Monday tomorrow, and he was going to see Hyunjin. He hoped that everything would be okay tomorrow, but he knew that it wasn’t likely if Haze was still untraceable.

* * *

When Seungmin enters the classroom, he sees Hyunjin reading a book on his seat, the sun hitting his face in ways that made Seungmin's heart hurt more than nervous. Darkness manipulation may be his more dominant power, but Seungmin can’t deny the way he captured the light to make it look like he was glowing.

Hyunjin lifts his head to meet his eyes, offering Seungmin a small smile before going back to reading. Seungmin tried not to think too much of it. He shouldn’t be put off just because Hyunjin was busy reading. He heaves a sigh and walks to his seat.

Seungmin's attention was always sought out, by Haze— by Hyunjin. Now that it wasn't wanted, Seungmin's heart clenched. It’s barely been three days and he already felt so empty without Hyunjin filling up his days.

He's going to wait for Hyunjin to open up. He didn’t want to pry.

Maybe he was overthinking.

“Hey, Seungmin.” Felix greeted as he took his seat.

Seungmin offers a timid smile. “Hey.”

Felix takes note of Seungmin’s smile before flicking his eyes over Seungmin’s shoulder. He sees Hyunjin, eyes fixed on his book as he turned a page. The corner of Felix’s mouth curls into a surly sulk as he turns back to Seungmin.

“Are you and Hyunjin...” Felix hesitated, seemingly looking for a word appropriate enough. “okay?”

Seungmin feels his brow twitch at the question. He doesn’t understand why he felt agitated with the harmless question, but he did; so he took out a notebook and began to thumb through its closed pages idly as Felix continued to speak.

“Changbin and I were asking about you yesterday and he was... I don’t know, he seemed vague?” Felix’s tone was high, his statement ending up as a question.

“Vague?” Seungmin intoned lacklusterly.

“Not really vague.” Felix answered. “It was just clear that he didn’t want to talk about you at the moment.”

Seungmin’s heart clenched as his thumb pressed on his notebook a bit too harshly. “Oh.”

“Are you two okay?” Felix asked again. He looked over to Hyunjin again and saw him looking at Seungmin. When Hyunjin saw that Felix caught him staring, he lowered his gaze back to his book.

Felix looks back at Seungmin. His thumb was the slightest bit of red from the pressure he was using to flick at the corner of his notebook, and he had a sullen pout of his face, mostly covered by the way his fringe was covering his lowered head.

“I guess?” Seungmin mumbled. “If he doesn’t want to talk to me, then I won’t.”

“Did something happen?” he asked. He didn’t like seeing his friends like this, especially not after seeing how happy they look together. He didn’t want to meddle in their problems, but he at least wanted to know what was wrong, in case any of them could help them sort things out.

Seungmin sighed. “Nothing. It’s gonna blow over soon.”

Felix hummed. He knew Seungmin enough to know that he meant ‘Something happened, but I don’t know what. I hope it blows over soon.’

Before Felix could get another question out, the teacher walks inside the classroom.

Seungmin opens the notebook he was fingering and feels a pair of eyes on the back of his head. He turns and feels his heart skip a beat when he locks eyes with Hyunjin’s.

The taller’s lips curve upward, a small smile fading into his face. Seungmin smiled back, his more hopeful that things really would blow over soon. They stay like that for a second longer before Hyunjin’s eyes flicker past Seungmin and to the teacher, who was jsut beginning to start the lesson.

Seungmin passes a hand through his face. His heart went from feeling empty to feeling full with only the small, yet clearly genuine, smile that Hyunjin gave him before going on to ignore him and face the teacher.

He surpressed a groan. He didn't have the energy for drama.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just a short filler chapter for now hhhhh ㅠㅠ i'll update again later hhhhh  
> thank you for reeeaaading <333


	30. Chapter 30

It's barely three days and Seungmin couldn't take the cold shoulder anymore.

Hyunjin wasn't ignoring him as a whole, but he did catch himself before he was overly flirty or playful, and Seungmin disliked that Hyunjin was holding himself back with him. Haze wasn't showing up at all, and Tempo disliked that he was alone at nights, not when he was already so used to having black silk between his fingers. Seungmin disliked that _either_ of them weren't in his grasp, when he so clearly was in their's. Both of him.

It made him feel empty with each passing glance. He didn’t know that he was capable of missing someone as much as he did now.

Seungmin watched Hyunjin's back as he erased the writings on the board. His other classmates were stood cleaning the room, waiting for the bell that signaled the end of class to ring. Their last teacher gave them the last ten minutes of the class to tidy up their classroom, but they had an inkling that their teacher just wanted to leave them early.

Felix was next to him, giggling as he texted Changbin who was two classroom down. Seungmin caught snippets of their conversation— a sleepover at Felix’s this weekend because Felix’s parents missed having Changbin over.

Seungmin's narrowed eyes trail down the folds in Hyunjin's blazer, his lip unconsciously jutted out as he wondered what he did that was so wrong for Hyunjin to distance himself.

Was Hyunjin tired of whatever game he was playing? Seungmin didn't know that the gamemaster can get tired, seeing as how Hyunjin had him under a spell of glinting eyes and honey-coated smirks that he’d never get tired of. Seungmin was the player, and the gamemaster wanted to call it quits.

Seungmin takes a deep breath, and time slows to a stop, taking one second instead of the usual fraction of it. Seungmin groans, tearing his eyes away from a frozen Hyunjin and tearing out a piece of paper from his notebook.

He writes Hyunjin a note. His pen hovered above the paper, not knowing what to write. He could write a full-fledged letter, but he didn’t want to. If he was going to talk to Hyunjin, he wanted to do it face-to-face, not ink-to-paper.

He tore his eyes away from the blank paper and looked up at Hyunjin. He had all the time in the world to think of what to write. Time was frozen, and at least now he could pretend that everything was the way it was supposed to be. He could pretend that if he made time move again, Hyunjin would drop the eraser and skip over to his place to ruffle his hair or squeeze his shoulder in that way he did without noticing.

Seungmin lowers his head again and starts to write the short note that he thought of. His writing isn’t as neat as it usually was but he stopped himself from tearing out another piece of paper and rewriting the note.

_'come to patrol tonight. -your darling'_

Seungmin stares at the written words in silence. He was contemplating on adding a few more sentences, but he relunctantly decided against it. If he continued writing, he might end up with a whole letter of how much he missed Hyunjin and how sorry he was for anything he might have done, and he wanted to say all those things in person.

So with another sigh, he stands, going to Hyunjin's seat before stopping. Behind him, he could feel Hyunjin’s presence at the front of the classroom, albeit frozen. He could feel that magnetic urge to be close to Hyunjin, and Seungmin was long tired of fighting it.

He nibbles on his lip and turns around, going to the front of the class and to where Hyunjin was erasing the writings on the board. The only sounds in the room were Seungmin’s breathing and footsteps, the noisy classroom still as time refused to move forward.

Seungmin reaches Hyunjin and he allows himself to admire Hyunjin up close, suddenly realizing how far he felt with the distance he put between them. Seungmin disliked it. It wasn't right. It would never be.

He looked down at his hand, neatly folding the piece of paper in half. He was suddenly having second thoughts of leaving the note with Hyunjin. Maybe he was wrong, and nothing was amiss. Maybe Hyunjin really did grow tired of playing gamemaster and decided to leave the player in the dust.

Seungmin shakes his head to will the thoughts away. He needed to talk to Hyunjin, and waiting for Hyunjin to walk up to him will take forever, and Seungmin couldn’t afford that.

He tucks the folded piece of paper inside Hyunjin's blazer pocket, wondering if he shouldn't have frozen Hyunjin as well. If he didn’t freeze Hyunjin, then they would be talking right now. But Seungmin didn’t want to force anything of Hyunjin. If Haze shows up tonight, then they’ll talk out of the other’s choice.

Seungmin’s lips tugged upward as he looked at Hyunjin’s eyes, focused on the task he was doing. He remembers once thinking that he had no reason to drown in Hyunjin's eyes, no reason to want to drown in the deep dark of Hyunjin's eyes, dotted with flecks of chocolate brown. Now, he wanted nothing more than to be inundated with Hyunjin.

Seungmin's hand lingers inside Hyunjin's pocket before he takes it out, his hand wrapped in as much warmth he could get from Hyunjin as of the moment.

He takes his seat again, and time starts.


	31. Chapter 31

Tempo waits for Haze on the rooftop where he first found him months ago. Maybe it's been a little under two, he thinks was he waits, eyes casted below. It seemed like such a long time ago since he stumbled upon him; but now that so much time has passed, he was beginning to think that their first encounter wasn’t by chance. Maybe Haze had been waiting for him that night, like how Tempo was waiting for him now. He figured that this must be how Haze felt whilst he stood on the rooftop and waited for someone he wasn’t sure was going to show up. He didn’t know if he really was waiting for someone, but he hoped that he was.

A couple of heroes passed by him as he sat in silence. He shared a smile and greeting with them, answering the passing questions they asked him when they thought that Tempo needed help with someone or that he was watching something from down below.

A pigeon perches itself next to where Tempo is seated. The pigeon tilts his head at Tempo, and Tempo raises a hand, flicking the side of its head. The pigeon flies away in a scurry, morphing back into Shift a few steps away from Tempo.

"Seriously, stop flicking me." Shift complained with no real sternness in his voice. He was rubbing over his ear where it hurt from the flick.

"What are you doing here?" Tempo asked. He wasn't the black-clad boy he was waiting for, but he'd take the company. He twists his upper body so that he could face Shift.

"I was out on patrol and I could hear your heartbeat from a few buildings away." Shift said as he eyed the seated boy.

"Are you obsessed with me?" Tempo laughed. "Why do you know my heartbeat and mine specifically?"

"Excuse you, brat. I only know _Jisung's_ heartbeat by heart.” Shift spat, chuckling at his redundant words. “I thought you were some unsuspecting child getting kidnapped or something."

"Oh." Tempo deadpanned.

Shift pressed his lips together. "What's up, though? You're nervous."

"Waiting for someone." Tempo answered. As the words dance in the air, Shift looks up from the seated hero in front of him. He looks around, his ears picking up a sound. Shift’s eyes move around the city, looking for something.

"What is it?" Tempo, eyes focused on Shift's movements. "I hear someone. Getting closer."

Tempo doesn't get to ask anything else, because another figure, this time in black silk and a white mask, drops in just behind Shift. The glint in his dark eyes is bright enough to be mistaken as stars.

Shift turns and Tempo feels that Shift is on high alert, shoulders tensed as he turned away from him to study the figure, no doubt with the dour expression he effortlessly pulled off during fights.

"Shift, it's alright." Tempo says, his voice not unlike a parent soothing its child. He was talking to Shift, but his eyes were locked with Haze's. "He's cool."

As if to prove Tempo's point, Haze smirks, meeting eyes with Shift for a second before looking back at Tempo. "You didn't tell me that we had company tonight."

Tempo’s heart flutters in his chest. It was as if he wasn’t avoiding him all this time. He acted so casually, so naturally, like he wasn’t called out tonight and he simply wanted to disrupt Tempo’s patrol like he always did for the past months. It made his heart hurt a little to see how unaffected Haze was with the sudden distance.

"He was just leaving." Tempo says before turning away from the rooftop and back to the streets. Having his upper body twisted for more than a few minutes had started to numb his waist. "He just dropped by."

"Hey, kid, you got a lot of explaining to do." Shift said as he took steps towards the part of the rooftop where Tempo was seated. Tempo was thankful that Shift wasn’t prying right now. He must have sensed the tension in the air despite Haze waving it off.

"Mn." Tempo hummed as he felt a tap of the crown of his head before Shift's presence is replaced by one of a pigeon. The pigeon flies away, and Tempo mentally notes that the bird flies to the direction of Minho and Jisung's home.

"Why did you ask for me?" Haze asked when a couple of moments passed without either of them speaking. His eyes combed over Tempo's seated figure, turned away from him. He wanted to walk closer but he stopped himself before he could take a step forward.

He didn’t know what he was expecting. He didn’t know if he was ready to hear that Haze was tired and that he didn’t want to play cat-and-mouse anymore. Maybe he was done with the games now that he had him in the palm of his hand like silly putty.

Tempo shook his head to will the thoughts away. He won’t settle for what-ifs he could ask Haze himself right here, right now.

"Because you weren't coming anymore." Tempo's voice was small, a touch of calculating and a touch of somber. "Why don't you come anymore?"

"Darling." Haze takes a step forward, one that Tempo doesn't notice as the sound of Haze's movement is muffled by Tempo's humourless laugh. The moniker almost sounded foreign to his ears if not for a pang of nostalgia that hit him from not hearing the name in days.

"I haven't heard that name in a while. I'll admit. I missed it." he doesn't know if his lips tug upwards or downwards, but he feels a tug as he pauses. "I missed you. Here, and in school. You've been so distant. I don't like it."

Tempo could taste the disdain in his tongue as he spoke. He knew that Haze could hear it, too. He didn’t do anything about it. He wanted Haze to know what he was feeling.

"I didn't know you felt that way, darling." Haze has reached Tempo by now, crouching down so he could place his hands on his shoulders. Tempo shivers under the touch despite the contact being nothing short of warm. He feels himself pout, but doesn't fight the urge to jut his lower lip out.

"Why have you been avoiding me?" he asked as he turned his head to look at Haze, his voice tinny and bordering on a whine. "You said you didn't want to hurt me. If you keep ignoring me, I'm going to get hurt."

 _I’m already hurt._ he thinks. Tempo bites back from saying it aloud when he saw the sullen look in Haze’s eyes. It was enough for Tempo to know that Haze wasn’t unaffected and that he was as empty as he felt these past days.

"I was giving you space, darling." he whispered. His words were anything but untrue, and Tempo felt the genuineness of the statement with every syllable. The candor in Haze’s voice made Tempo all the more confused.

"Why?"

"Because of that night." he answered, and Tempo's mind automatically goes to the night where Hyunjin beat up a thug. It had to be that one, because when morning came, Hyunjin was distant.

Tempo’s brows furrowed under his mask. "What about that night?"

"You know who I am, Min." he speaks lowly as if there was anyone else that could hear them. Or maybe he just spoke lowly so that Tempo wouldn't hear the borderline desperation and frustration in his voice, so that he could only hear the same affection Tempo was used to hearing from him. "But you do nothing about it. I know you know who I am. Hell, you _called_ me here."

"You know who I am, too."

"Yes, I do." Haze presses a chaste kiss on his forehead. The kiss is warm and gentle and Tempo closes his eyes at the touch, a small sigh escaping from his lips before he opened them again. "And I have no problems with that. But I know you, Min. I know you enough to know that you're scared. Of me— both of me. You're not ready to stop denying what I've made plainly obvious."

Tempo takes one of the hands on his shoulder and holds in to his lap. He doesn’t intertwine their fingers, just holds on to his hand. "I don't want you to avoid me, though."

He looks down at the hand on his lap, his thumbs grazing Haze's knuckles. He knows that Haze was telling the truth. What he was so afraid of, he still didn't know, and that's what scared him even more. Not knowing what was wrong.

"I'm not." another kiss on his forehead. Haze cups his cheek with his other hand, but doesn't make Tempo look at him. He lets the hero keep his eyes on their hands, lets him play with his hand with his. "I'm just waiting for you to be ready to accept me, okay? And until then, I don't want to keep smothering you. It will only mess with your thoughts, and I don't want that. Do you understand, darling?"

"You'll wait for me?" Tempo asked as he looked up to meet Haze's eyes. Haze nods, a small smile on his face.

Tempo mimics the smile, feeling lighter than earlier. "You'll hang out with me at nights again?"

"If that's what my darling wants." Haze answers. His tone is back to its frequent coy and light. Tempo smiles, a proper one, and his hold on Haze's hand tightens. He looks down again, watching as he laced his fingers with Haze’s, and his heart jumps when he feels another kiss on his forehead.

At the back of his mind, he knew that Hyunjin didn't have to wait long.


	32. Chapter 32

Friday rolled around and Hyunjin and Changbin had basketball practice. There was a basketball game tomorrow, so their practices were less laidback than usual. Seungmin, Felix, and Jeongin were inside the cafe that Hyunjin and Seungmin accidentally skipped first period in that one time, waiting for the two boys to finish with their practice before heading home.

The sun was almost set and Jeongin was in his third mug of hot chocolate, Felix on his second yoghurt and Seungmin on his first iced tea after a mug of hot chocolate. A plate of almond cookies lay next to a plate of brownies in the middle of the table as the three boys busied themselves with homework to pass the time.

Haze kept his word. He fell back into his routine of calling an end to Tempo’s patrols, and Hyunjin fell back into ruffling Seungmin’s hair and squeezing his shoulder without much thought. Granted, that there was still some restrictions in his interactions, but it wasn’t enough for Seungmin to feel empty anymore.

Seungmin bit on the end of his straw, his eyes scanning the cafe as well as the world outside. Jeongin was the only one left doing homework, Felix watching a show on his phone and Seungmin just looking around idly.

The cafe door opens, and Hyunjin and Changbin enter, gym bags on their shoulders and both boys freshly showered. Felix brought Changbin’s school bag and Jeongin Hyunjin’s when the five of them parted ways after classes.

“Hey.” Felix smiled, letting Changbin kiss his forehead before the basketball team captain sat down next to him where his bag was.

“How was practice?” Jeongin asked, just about done with his workload.

Hyunjin shrugged, taking his seat on the chair where his bag was— next to Seungmin. “It was okay. The game is tomorrow, so couch was a bit on edge.”

“You guys would do fine.” Seungmin said before going back to biting on his straw.

"You guys want anything?" Felix asked. The two boys looked worn out after three hours of basketball practice. He’d feel bad if they went home without them grabbing a bite to eat or a refreshing drink first.

“A coffee would be nice.” Changbin thoughtfully said.

"Cake would be nice." Hyunjin mused as his eyes scanned the front of the cafe where the menus and pastry displays were found.

"Peach chiffon?" Seungmin smiled lightly. He progressed from biting on his straw to using it to stab at the ice cubes of his drink. The putter of his plastic straw against the ice cubs made a bumping sound, but nothing too annoying for any of them.

"Yeah, actually." Hyunjin said airily in lieu of a whisper. He turned his head to look at Seungmin, smiling when their eyes met. Hyunjin chuckled when Seungmin looked away, catching the brush of pink on his cheeks as he continued to abuse the ice cubs in his drink.

“Come with me?” Felix pouted as he prodded at Changbin’s arm, asking him to come with him to the counter. Changbin pretended not to hear, making Felix pout even more and shake his arm again.

Changbin laughed, standing and letting his boyfriend drag him to the counter to order cake and coffee.

“Wait, get me another hot chocolate!” Jeongin called out to the couple as they lined up on the counter. Felix raised a thumb over his shoulder; too busy chatting with Changbin to turn to the table.

When Felix and Changbin return and Hyunjin has a plate of peach chiffon in front of him, Seungmin notices the subtle push that he gives the plate, placing it between them. Seungmin bites on his straw instead of his lip, a small smile finding him at the gesture.

“Good luck, though.” Felix said as he handed Jeongin his hot chocolate. “I know you two will do well tomorrow.”

“We hope.” Changbin mussed his still damp hair as he sipped on his iced Americano.

Jeongin laughed as he looked at Hyunjin who was in the middle of chewing on a bite of cake. “I remember when Hyunjin was trying out for the basketball team for the first time during middle school. He had this childhood dream of having a moment like Troy and Gabriella.”

Hyunjin almost choked on his cake at the testimony. He stifled down a cough, mentally pleading that Jeongin would leave it at that and not elaborate. Seungmin noticed Hyunjin’s silent distress and wordlessly pushed his glass towards the boy, nudging the iced tea next to the plate of peach chiffon.

“What moment?” Felix jested. Jeongin and Hyunjin have been friends since before high school, but they didn’t usually share their childhood stories with the others. Hyunjin and High School Musical characters is an odd sentence to them.

“The one at the start of one of the movies, where Gabriella starts singing on the bleachers.” Jeongin laughed whilst he blew on his hot drink. “It was why he decided to try for basketball.”

Seungmin laughed, partly because of the story but mostly because of the red color on his ears that only he could see thanks to Hyunjin’s damp and disorderly hair covering his ears from the people across the table.

“I didn’t expect something like that from you.” Seungmin mused with the intention of teasing Hyunjin even more. He stifled a laugh when Hyunjin’s rose red ears turned cherry red. He envisioned a middle school Hyunjin daydreaming about a love confession in the middle of a basketball game. Seungmin smiled even wider, finding child Hyunjin as endearing as the one next to him.

"You should know by now that I'm unpredictable." Hyunjin jests with a wink. Seungmin rolls his eyes, a small smile tugging on his lips. He reaches for a fork, not satisfied with ice cubes so he resorts to stabbing at the sides of the cake and making a mess of his side of the plate.

Felix laughs. "Well, we all know that Seungmin and a mic isn't an abysmal combo, so who knows?"

Seungmin’s brow twitches as he blushes. He quickly turns his head down to look at the plate, his grip on the fork tightening a little as he was pretending to be focused on stabbing the sides of the peach chiffon. "Shut up, Felix."

"Aww, Min, you're blushing." Hyunjin taunted playfully. He moves to take the fork from Seungmin but he shoots Hyunjin a small glare, which has Hyunjin automatically drawing his hand back; but Seungmin sees the way Hyunjin's eyes shift, and he feels a light tug on the fork.

He tightens the hold on the fork whilst still being inconspicuous, but the tug becomes stronger. He lets go of the fork, looking as if he just dropped it instead of it being pried from his hand by an invisible force.

"That's a sight." Changbin snorted, no trace of malice in his voice at all. He personally didn’t see Hyunjin as one who was a fan of big, romantic gestures in front of almost a hundred people, but it would be an interesting scenario.

Jeongin laughed when he saw a tinge of red behind Hyunjin’s hair. "Stop, they're blushing."

" _You_ brought it up." Hyunjin barbed with a huff.

"Okay, fine." Felix rolled his eyes gamely. He was glad that Seungmin and Hyunjin looked like they’ve fallen back into each other again, not acting awkward or distant with each other anymore. They never did say what happened between them, but as long as they look like they had no more problems, Felix, Changbin, and Jeongin are more that okay with being left in the dark.

"Let's stop. We don't want Hyunjin throwing the game or something." Changbin chortled whilst raising a teasing eyebrow at Hyunjin.

Hyunjin placed a wounded hand on his chest. "I can't believe you think me capable of that."

"We should know by now that you're unpredictable." Seungmin jibes, picking up the fork again. He raises a brow at Hyunjin, silently telling him not to take the fork from him again as he continued to stab the side of the cake with the intention of eating the mushy parts he separated from the cake.

Seungmin could be unpredictable, too, he thinks as he places a bite of cake in his mouth. He feels the soft chiffon on his tongue, dissolved by the repeated jabbing of the fork into the chiffon, and indulges in the flavour of the peaches.

With a small smile, he sneaks a glance at Hyunjin before stealing another bite. They weren't Troy and Gabriella, but they didn't have to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're almost at the end hhhhh thanks so much for reading, I can never stress enough how thankful I am to all of you ㅠㅠ find me in [twitter](https://twitter.com/markeu_tuan93) or go to my [curious cat](https://curiouscat.qa/water_lili_es) if ya'll wanna chat *^^* I'd love to talk with you <33


	33. Chapter 33

The school was empty when Seungmin stepped foot inside. His frazzled footsteps echoed through the deserted hallways on his way to the gym. Every step he took closer was another beat added to his heart’s bpm, but with every click of his shoes on the floor was another half second that time was slowing down. He didn’t want to walk in on loud crowds and cheering students with basketball players running around to make his head hurt even more.

He wasn’t in the best mood today. He was late for the basketball game, late enough that he was sure that half of the game was over, and his contradicting emotions weren’t helping him calm down either. He wanted to punch a wall and go on a rampage, but he was giving his all to hold himself back from running out of the school and wreaking havoc in the city.

He was up bright and early, running around his unit looking for what to wear to a basketball game as if it was the first one he’s been to and as if he was one to dress to impress. He fumbled over two mugs of coffee, repeatedly reciting a speech in his mind before it was time for him to leave for school.

He left half an hour early, but was caught up in a fight. He couldn’t just walk pass the superhero that looked like she was clearly having trouble with her opponent. Seungmin didn’t know that it would take over an hour to get rid of a villain that can clone himself up to five times.

He was tired and worn out, and he was anxious for what he was planning to do. Multiple times on the way to school, he decided on turning back, but he forced himself not to. He had to talk to Hyunjin. It was now or never, before his nerves made him back out completely.

He reaches the gym, and one second lasted a minute. He opens the door, and as soon as he steps foot inside the gym, time stops completely, save for him and the boy in the middle of the court, who breaks free from Seungmin’s hold on time and freezes at the realization that time stood still.

Hyunjin looks around, clenching his fists as he looked at the basketball in the air. He had just went in for a shot, but he blinked and everything was frozen. This isn't the first time that the seconds don't hold him captive and Hyunjin automatically knows who's responsible, but before he can turn away from the basketball and look for Seungmin, he sees the boy marching up to him with a frustrated frown.

Seungmin sucks in a breath as he made his way to Hyunjin, his jaw clenching in the vestiges of his irritation. He was running on adrenaline, both from the fight and the fact that he was two seconds away from making a complete fool of himself. “Look, I’m really not in the mood to dilly-dally, so let’s forget about that whole ass speech I was practicing since last night and until this morning and get to what’s up.”

Seungmin was too worked up that he didn’t give himself time to be taken aback at the sight of Hyunjin standing in the middle of a basketball game, a basketball just leaving his hands, and Seungmin was positive that it was a sure shot. He barely noticed the skip in his heart as he marched up to the boy, who didn’t look the slightest bit confused at the fact that he was the only one in the gym that wasn’t frozen in time. Hyunjin’s brow, however, twiched when he saw the resentful look in Seungmin’s face.

Seungmin stands in front of Hyunjin, his scowl softening when his eyes drink in the image of a sweaty Hyunjin, smiling softly down at him as he caught his breath from all the running he’s been doing since now. If things were different, and Seungmin was a villian, he just knows that he won't even put up a fight against Hyunjin's gentle eyes and honey-coated smirk.

“You came.” Hyunjin breathed out, hands on his hips as he tried to appease his burning lungs. He looked at Seungmin tenderly despite the borderline aggressive tone that Seungmin was currently using on him. If Hyunjin was being honest, an annoyed Seungmin was quite adorable, especially when the annoyance wasn't directed at him.

Seungmin’s shoulders slumped, a small pout on his lips. “I’m sorry I’m late. It’s just...”

He groaned as he threw his head back, and Hyunjin laughed, taking a step closer and using both hands to cup the back of Seungmin’s head, tilting it back up so that he could admire Seungmin’s adorably irritated expression. He always saw the boy smiling or laughing and rarely with as much hostility in his features as he did now and Hyunjin wanted to know even this side of him because he didn't know when the next time Seungmin would be sporting another endearingly irritated scowl.

“Hey, hey...” Hyunjin’s voice was soothing, though he personally didn’t know what had Seungmin so worked up. “It’s fine. You’re here now, right?”

He could practically hear Changbin’s nagging in his mind. He was a little distracted up until now, and the team captain was doing what he can to pull Hyunjin out of his inconspicuous daze; playing whilst looking for Seungmin. But now, Seungmin was here, and he can focus on his game without the annoying thought that Seungmin wasn’t watching and therefore, there was no reason to over-exert himself.

But now, he had to give Seungmin his undivided attention. It wasn’t going to be hard, not when Hyunjin could feel the magnetic energy radiating off of Seungmin, persuading him to eliminate every and all space that was between them.

Seungmin huffs, letting the warmth of Hyunjin’s hands on his nape calm him. He smiled timidly, finding it ridiculous that he wasn’t fuming anymore. “Yeah, but I’m late. Stupid villains and stupid city needing stupid saving.”

Hyunjin laughed at his darling’s grumbling, shaking his head to throw aside the damp strands of his hair that were sticking to his face. He smiled when he caught Seungmin watching him fondly. “Well, that’s the price that a superhero has to pay.”

Seungmin shakes his head, closing his eyes when Hyunjin’s hand started to massage his nape, the other dropping to give his shoulder a quick squeeze. “I just want to be normal sometimes.”

They both knew that Seungmin didn’t mean his words, but that didn’t stop Hyunjin from letting out a hearty laugh. He liked when Seungmin was being over-dramatic. He wanted to hear everything that Seungmin could ever whine about.

“I like you the way you are, darling.” Hyunjin exhaled as he kissed Seungmin’s forehead.

When Seungmin opens his eyes, he looks at Hyunjin with as much emotion as he can manage. All the frustration and anxiety was gone now that he had Hyunjin in front of him, holding him so securely yet so loosely and setting his skin ablaze with his warm touch. Seungmin lets out a breath as he leans into Hyunjin’s touch, his smile growing fonder the longer they stayed like this.

Hyunjin was looking around the gym. His teammates were frozen, so were the opposing team. The bleachers were silent when earlier the gym was ringing with various cheers and yells from the students watching. He sees Felix and Jeongin in front, frozen like all the others around them, and remembers their conversation from yesterday.

“You’re not doing this because of what Jeongin said yesterday, are you?” Hyunjin asked as he looked back at Seungmin with a small chuckle.

Seungmin shot back a laugh of his own, shaking his head again. “Maybe. But God forbid I show up singing out my love for you.”

“Well, as long as I know there’s _some_ love for me.” Hyunjin smiled.

“All for you.” Seungmin laughed as he placed his hands on Hyunjin’s shoulders.

“I’m sorry I took so long, Jin.” he whispered as he looked into Hyunjin’s eyes. His voice was solemn and sincere, demanding attention that need not be asked before given to. “I was just so scared... of nothing. It was all so perfect, and it scared me, that I was dreaming. And I didn’t want the dream to turn into a nightmare, not when I was so far in.”

Hyunjin’s smile didn’t falter as his hand drops from Seungmin’s shoulder to the middle of his back. “I’m not a dream, darling. I’m real.”

“I know that now.” Seungmin answered. One of his hands trailed down Hyunjin’s arm as if to prove to himself that what was happening was real and that he wasn’t dreaming. His hand draws back up Hyunjin’s arm, going past his shoulder and settling on his nape.

“I’m not going to walk away from you, Haze.” Seungmin whispered. He was once again aware of his rapid heartbeat, the same beating that he’s been able to push aside until now. “If you’ll have me.”

Hyunjin’s dark eyes glimmered, and Seungmin draws in a deep breath. He’d have to remember to ask Hyunjin if he had small flickers of light in his flecks of chocolate brown. His eyes were the perfect mix of dark and light and Seungmin could spend hours just admiring the combination.

There wasn't supposed to be a reason for him to drown in Hyunjin's eyes, to want to drown in his deep dark browns, but why was Seungmin's head spinning with thoughts of how he so badly wanted to stay like this? He wanted to stay like this, with Hyunjin looking at him and only him, and if it weren't for the fact that the world was literally frozen right now, Seungmin might even feel as if time had stood still.

Hyunjin's head dips down, capturing Seungmin’s lips in a slow kiss. Seungmin’s eyes flutter shut as he feels the hand on his back pull him closer. Through his closed eyelids, Seungmin can see the rushed flickering of the gym lights; surely Hyunjin’s doing. Seungmin was sure that the electricity jolting through his entire being was another one of Hyunjin's powers.

Hyunjin lets go of his nape so that both his hands were on his back, pulling him even closer as he slotted their lips together more accurately. Seungmin tilts his head, not breaking the kiss but deepening it, as his fingers gently dig into the skin of Hyunjin's nape. He feels his head go light and his knees go weak and he decides this will be the best way to use the last of his breath.

“I’ll have you, Min.” Hyunjin whispered between kisses. “Always.”

Seungmin sighs before leaning back in, kissing Hyunjin deeply. His kisses were sweeter than any type of honey Seungmin could ever find and he was beginning to realize that he might be developing a sweet tooth. Hyunjin tastes like honey, unbearably sweet and impossibly thick and overwhelmingly smooth that even silk won't compare to how Hyunjin dances in and between Seungmin.

The hand on Hyunjin’s shoulder clenches and the pressure is sharp enough for Hyunjin to let out a muffled sound of surprise. Seungmin wanted to laugh at his effect on Hyunjin, knowing he wasn’t any better.

The kiss was slow and gentle, not unlike their first kiss on top of the French restaurant. Hyunjin could feel all of Seungmin’s nerves wash away with the kiss and he nibbled on the younger’s lip, telling him that he was worth the wait and that he’d wait his whole life if Seungmin wanted him to. He knew it was excessive, but it didn't render it untrue.

Hyunjin starts to get light-headed as Seungmin’s lips continued to move against his. His heart was soaring, beating against his ribcage like it wanted to burst out from his chest and shoot hoops right then and there. He catches Seungmin's bottom lip between his teeth, nibbling on it playfully and earning a whine from the younger.

Hyunjin feels his lungs screaming for air. He still hasn’t fully caught his breath from the game and kissing Seungmin snatched the air out of him even more. He pulls away, pressing their foreheads together and letting out a small chuckle when Seungmin whined at the loss of contact.

“Darling, I have a game.” Hyunjin laughed when the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was Seungmin’s pout. He leaned in and kissed it, barely a second, but it was long enough for the pout to be replaced with a smile. His heart skipped a beat, knowing he was responsible for such a reaction.

“Win this for me, yeah?” Seungmin whispered, out of breath from the kiss and the adrenaline leaving his system. His heart was still fluttering with dozens of butterflies as the feeling of Hyunjin’s lips on his lingered seconds too long.

“Anything for my darling.” Hyunjin answered before letting go of Seungmin.

Seungmin takes a step back, and when Hyunjin is finally able to see the rose in his cheeks, he was willing to bet that he was the same. The thought made him smile widely, his eyes disappearing as he laughed.

“I’ll be with Felix and Jeongin.” Seungmin said with a smile as he spotted his friends at the front of the bleachers. There was an empty seat next to Felix, which he assumed they saved for him. He realized that he had to be by the door when he made time start up again, though.

He turns back to Hyunjin and prods at the basketball player’s arm. Hyunjin steps closer, and Seungmin leans upwards to press a quick kiss on Hyunjin’s cheek before running to the door.

“Good luck, honey.” Seungmin’s voice echoed through the silent gym before the clock started ticking again, and his words are quickly drowned out by the loud noise of the basketball game.

The crowd cheers as the ball goes in the basket. Hyunjin had scored two points.

He winks at a grinning Seungmin before continuing with the game, and Seungmin moves to sit next to Felix.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I!!! TRIED!!! HHHHH ㅠㅠ


	34. Chapter 34

The loud cheering of the crowd doesn’t faze the two teams playing in the basketball court. The students’ eyes follow the ball, whilst Seungmin’s follows Hyunjin. He, Felix, and Jeongin are locked in the arms as the three boys jump around and match the energy of their school’s side of the bleachers.

“AHHH!” Felix yelled as he shook Seungmin harshly. The boy paused still where he stood, his cheeks nursing an apple red color when Hyunjin combed his hair back and winked at him before running over to his teammates for a break.

During time out, Seungmin feels a tug on the back of his shirt. He turns around to see Felix distractedly snapping pictures of Changbin, who was talking to the team, whilst Jeongin was too far for him to reach over and call for Seungmin. Seungmin turns back to the team, but before his eyes could find Hyunjin, there’s another tug on his shirt.

He turns around and sees the bottle of water Jeongin gave him earlier inch forward from where it was placed on top of his seat. Seungmin smiled as he took it, sitting down on the chair before opening the bottle and downing half of his contents. When he turns back to the court, Hyunjin throws him another wink, this time one that Felix and Jeongin don’t catch.

Seungmin lifts the bottle in his hand, shaking it a little in a silent command for Hyunjin to drink water as well. Hyunjin nods from where he was before turning back to pay attention to Changbin, snatching a bottle of water from the cooler in the middle of the basketball team’s bags.

“Go, Changbin!” Felix cheered when the game started back up again. Their school was barely leading the game and the other school can quickly catch up and turn the tables. Seungmin glanced at the clock. There was only two minutes left.

Changbin passes the ball to Hyunjin. Seungmin feels his heartbeat spike when Hyunjin glances at him and runs, dribbling the ball in his hands.

Seungmin can hear Hyunjin’s name being thrown around the gym, and he doesn’t stop himself from cheering with them. Seungmin glances at the clock again. There was half a minute left.

“Hyunjin! Hyunjin!” the students above yelled as Hyunjin bent his knees, getting ready to shoot the ball. Seungmin’s own cheers are lost in the crowd as he feels Felix shaking his arm again.

The ball leaves Hyunjin’s hands. The ball goes through the basket effortlessly and the buzzer slices through the loud cheers of the students. It was a good aclean game and their school won.The teams rush to their sides of the court whilst Hyunjin makes a beeline for the bleachers with a ridiculously large grin on his face.

“Congratulations!” Seungmin laughed when Hyunjin was near enough. He opened his arms for a hug, but Hyunjin had other plans. He let out a sound of surprise when he’s lifted of his feet, and Hyunjin spins them around in a half-circle.

Seungmin laughed and placed his hands on either side of Hyunjin’s shoulders, looking down at the sweaty boy. Hyunjin was smiling brightly and Seungmin could feel the adrenaline still pumping through Hyunjin’s veins as he leaned down and pressed a chaste kiss on Hyunjin’s lips. It was something he did without thought, something he'll be doing without thinking twice from now on.

The triumpant ovations are tuned out as Hyunjin kisses Seungmin back. Seungmin can barely hear the anything aside from his loud heart despite the full gym. He pulls away and moves his hands from Hyunjin’s shoulders to his cheeks before ruffling Hyunjin’s damp hair, his heart swelling when he sees the pure affection shining in Hyunjin's eyes.

“You’re sweaty.” Seungmin laughed as Hyunjin spun around again before putting him down. He brushed Hyunjin’s hair out of face, schooling a disgusted expression at the feeling of the sticky strands on his fingers. He was still smiling uncontrollably, the feeling of Hyunjin's full lips on his making him want to break out into a fit of uncontrollable giggles.

“Excuse me?!” Felix cut through their moment, a laughing Jeongin barely managing to sit up. Seungmin had almost forgotten that they were there, along with everyone else inside the gym, which was silly, since now that Seungmin's attention wasn't on Hyunjin, he wondered how he'd forgotten in the first place. “I think your friends are owed an explanation?!”

Changbin reaches them by this time, pushing Hyunjin by the shoulder as he passed to get to Felix. Felix smiled brightly, forgetting everything else once he had his arms around Changbin in a congratulatory hug. “Congrats, captain! It’s the first win of the season.”

“I’m the real winner, though.” Hyunjin said lowly as he winked at Seungmin for a third time.

Seungmin laughed and gently hit Hyunjin’s chest before bringing his hand back on his shoulder. “This season’s MVP, for sure.”

“Okay, loverboys, I think you need to get back to your team.” Jeongin said after recovering from his chortles. He raised an eyebrow at Hyunjin and Changbin before tilted his head to the other side of the gym, where the two basketball teams were waiting for the ending rituals.

“I’ll be back.” Hyunjin smiled as Seungmin dropped his hands to his sides.

Seungmin wrinkled his nose in faux distaste. “After a shower, preferably.”

After Changbin leaves Felix with a quick kiss, the two basketball players jog to their team. Seungmin falls to his seat, biting on his lower lip as a smile fights its way into his face. He was stupid in love and dumbly infatuated with Hwang Hyunjin.

“Seungmin!” Felix sang as he sat down next to him and prodded at his arm. Jeongin took the other seat next to Seungmin, seeing as how the girl had no intention to sit back down.

“What was that about?” Jeongin asked, stifling another round of laughs. The shock of Hyunjin and Seungmin has worn off by now but Jeongin could still find something hilarious if he pried hard enough.

Seungmin smiled, shrugging as he shook Felix’s hands off him.

“We had a moment?” Seungmin’s half-hearted explanation came with a giddy laugh. He looks past his friends and meets eyes with Hyunjin, and his smile broadens.


	35. Chapter 35

Haze was standing on the edge of a rooftop. He watched with a wry smile as the citizens of the city went along their lives as normal, unaware of the breakneck speed his heart was pounding at and his blood rushing just as fast. The stars were out, blessing the Saturday night beautifully for anyone who deemed themselves worthy enough to admire the God-given blessings. A corner of Haze's lips tugged upward as he tilted his head to the sky.  
  
They were bright, but not nearly as bright enough to compete with his darling's charming smile.  
  
After the basketball game, the five of them went out for pizza and milkshakes for lunch. They parted after that; he and Changbin needed to go back to their team when their coach called for a last minute celebration at the school field. It was a simple gathering, more pizza and milkshakes and other snacks among those that Changbin and Hyunjin only had the appetite for half a serving each.  
  
He smiled. His day was longer than others’, seeing as how he had stolen minutes with Seungmin in the middle of the game. Those frozen minutes were impossible to anyone else but it didn't stop Hyunjin from declaring it the highlight of his day.  
  
He hears a sound from behind him. Someone was with him on the rooftop. He doesn't move and continues to admire the night sky. If it wasn't Tempo, then he could very well take care of himself.  
  
He feels a pair of arms snake around his waist, and before he can move to touch the person's wrists, his senses are overwhelmed with the same scent of strawberries that started it all. He relaxes under Tempo's touch, lifting his hands so he can close his fingers in Tempo's wrists, stopping him from letting go.  
  
"Looks like _I_ found _you_ tonight." Tempo whispered, a phantom of a laugh trailing behind his words.  
  
"Did you search long?" Haze asked. From behind him, he feels Tempo shake his head as him hold on his tightens. Haze smiled when he felt Tempo's cheek on his shoulder blade, the touch sending goosebumps to trail the breadth of his nape.  
  
"No." Tempo answered with a small sigh. "I'm more worried about how long you waited for me."  
  
Haze's brow twitched when he hears the words. Tempo's voice carried the sentence in a way that made him think that there was a deeper meaning into his statement; like he spoke of the days before today than the minutes before this moment in time.  
  
He lifted Tempo's wrists from his waist, not letting go even as he turned so they were facing each other. His subtle smirk turned into a small smile as he raised his hands and placed the hero's hands on his shoulders. His hands drop to his sides after.  
  
"Waiting for you is easy." he said sincerely as he dipped his head down. He saw Tempo draw in a shallow breath, and his smile tugged upwards. "I know that I'm waiting for something when it comes to you."  
  
Tempo smiled and closed his eyes, relishing the moment as best as he can. He would will his heart to calm down, but now he knew better and that his heart will always beat like crazy when it comes to the boy in front of him. Haze always handled him like he was a gem, always with gentle care, yet his body always responded like the life was being squeezed out of him— in the best way possible, but it always left him breathless and dazed.

"Are you done with patrol, darling?" Haze asked, blinking innocently at the hero.

Tempo nodded. "Yeah. I'm not really in the mood to go around the city tonight."

Haze laughed. Seungmin’s words during his entrance to the gym came back to him, as well as the frustrated scowl on his face when he first arrived. It seemed like his darling wasn't in the mood for a lot of things today. "What are you in the mood for, then?"  
  
"Just this." Tempo exhaled as he wrapped his arms around Haze's neck and stepped closer. "I like it like this."  
  
Tempo places his ear on Haze's shoulder, just above his heart, and the trickster is worried that the hero would hear the uneven pitter-patter of the organ. He waves the thought away and places his hands on Tempo's back, pulling him barely an inch closer.  
  
"Let's stay like this, then." Haze sighed as he buried his nose in Tempo's hair, inhaling the strawberry scent of his conditioner with a small smile. His head felt light with the surge of memories that came into mind. "Does that sound good?"

Tempo nodded against his shoulder, hiding his face in the black silk of Haze's attire so that his giddy smile would be secret to anyone but them— the one who was smiling and the one who was the reason for the smile. "Sounds perfect to me."

“Congratulations, by the way.” Tempo whispered after moments of shared silence between them. He lifted his face from Haze’s shoulder and props his chin on top of it, smiling kindly at the point guard. “From what was left of the game, you were really good.”

Haze dips his head down to place a kiss on the hero’s forehead. “I had to play well. You were watching me.”

“Changbin is right.” Tempo laughed with a shake of his head. “You _are_ willing to throw the game.”

“Only for you.” Haze mused with a hint of a joke, eyes shining as he laughed.

Tempo rolled his eyes, not wanting to look into Haze’s eyes lest he drown in them for the nth time ever since he’s met the boy. He huffed, in lieu of a chuckle. “I have to be careful, then. I don’t know how much power I have over you.”

“You have no idea,” Haze laughed again, the sound permeating through Tempo’s skin, making him feel light and giddy all over. His voice was low and soft, almost a whisper but not quite. “just how much power you have over me.”

“I guess it’s time I found out.” Tempo answered. He raises his chin from the trickster’s shoulder and presses a smack on Hyunjin’s lips, pulling away with a teasing smile before Haze could even react.

He places his cheek on Haze’s shoulder again, looking behind the dazed trickster. He bursts into giggles when he sees the lights of the building across from them on the brink of getting over a malfunction. He knows that Hyunjin can control his powers exceptionally well, but seeing him slip like this over things like these make his heart flutter with pride and adoration. He turns to Haze, wanting to tease the taller when he’s met with a proper kiss.

It barely lasts a few seconds, but Tempo was thankful that he was holding on to Haze’s shoulder and Haze was supporting his back because he was sure that his legs were too weak to keep him standing. The kiss is soft and sweet and both of them feel their mind reel from the overwhelming feeling of their lips pressed together in chaste and innocent kiss that had the butterflies in their stomaches rallying with titters.

When he pulls away, Tempo lets out another set of giggles, shy this time. He doesn’t know why he was suddenly feeling sheepish. He burrows his face in the soft black silk, sighing when Haze pulls him a centimeter closer.

“My God, Min.” Haze breathed out, sounding like he did when time had stopped in the middle of the basketball game. “ _You_ don’t know how much power you have over _me_.”

Tempo laughed, raising his head from Haze’s shoulder and offering the taller a small pout. Haze’s eyes flickered from his eyes to his pout, another desperate sigh escaping his honey-coated lips.

“That pout, especially,” Haze shook his head. He looked like he was giving up in a losing fight. His lip tugged upward and caught Tempo’s lower lip between his own in a kiss that lasted half a second. “can rule the world if you wanted to.”

“I only want you.” Tempo said as he retracted his pout. He was once again thankful that his mask can cover the blood rushing to his cheeks.

Haze smiled, pressing a habitual kiss on Tempo’s forehead. “You have me.”


	36. Chapter 36

Seungmin, Jeongin, and Felix are locked in the arms as they jump in place and scream their hearts out. Seungmin and Felix were holding a pompom each, the prop waving in the air in the colours of their school, much like some of the other students with them on the bleachers.

Their school was the visiting team this match, but the unfamiliar environment didn’t stop them from cheering their hearts out as they watched their school play for the last game of the season.

Everyone in the gym watches as the ball is passed to Changbin, and the team captain runs towards their side of the court whilst dribbling the ball.

“GO CHANGBIN!” Felix yelled as he jumped higher, waving the pompom in the air.

The winning shot is made, and the students from their school cheer as the timer buzzes. They had just won the last game of the season.

The triumphant cheers are matched with the basketball team carrying their captain on their shoulders, Changbin laughing as he tried to grab onto Hyunjin so he wouldn’t fall. Felix let go of Jeongin, excitedly running over to the group of basketball players with a bottle of water for his boyfriend. Seungmin and Jeongin laugh as they follow, Seungmin with a bottle of water of his own.

“Alright, put him down. The king’s love is here.” one of their teammates said. A burst of laughs circled around the court as Changbin was placed back to the ground, almost losing his footing when he’s glomped by a giggling Felix.

“Congratulations!” Felix beamed as he hugged Changbin. “You were amazing.”

“You were watching.” Changbin answered easily as Felix let go of him and gave him the bottle of water. His smile was overflowing with left-over adrenaline and Felix almost swooned at the sight. Changbin took the bottle of water with a thankful smile. “Thank you.”

“Hey.” Seungmin breathed out as he stood in front of Hyunjin. The boy was sweaty and Seungmin laughed to himself as he pulled out the small towel he kept inside his jacket pocket. He gave Hyunjin the bottle of water before reaching up and dabbing at the beads of sweat that lined his forehead and temples.

“Last game of the season, honey.” Seungmin mused as Hyunjin drank from the bottle, Seungmin still drying Hyunjin’s face of sweat. He smiled brightly at the basketball player as he moved the towel down to the side of Hyunjin’s cheek.

Hyunjin nodded. He closed the water bottle and smiled at Seungmin, inching forward to wrap his arms around him. “You have me all to yourself now, darling!”

Seungmin laughed, dropping his hand and stopping his task of wiping away Hyunjin’s sweat. He threw his head back, donning a disgusted expression. “Jin, you’re stinky!”

“I’m not!” Hyunjin shook his head, leaning in for a kiss that Seungmin evaded. Hyunjin sported an offended face when his kiss was avoided, looking at Seungmin with wide eyes and an opened jaw. “Min? You don’t want to kiss me anymore?”

Seungmin wrinkled his nose as he shook his head. “Not when you’re all sweaty.”

“Alright, alright, cut it out.” Jeongin said from a couple of steps in front of them. He was busy with another student, distributing water bottles and towels to the team. The cooler where they were taking water bottles from was the opposing team’s cooler, and Changbin had smiled when he felt the sportsmanship when they offered to share their extra water bottles with them. “Hyunjin has to shower, and Changbin said they’re having a little party later.”

Hyunjin pouted even more when he realized he had to let go of Seungmin. Seungmin laughed, leaning forward and pressing a quick kiss of Hyunjin’s nose before wiggling out of the taller’s hold. “Go shower. Felix, Jeongin, and I are going to stay here.”

Hyunjin’s shoulders slumped as he blinked at Seungmin. The hero rolled his eyes and gave Hyunjin a kiss on the lips, quick enough that he wouldn’t have time to react and pull him closer. After he pulled away, Seungmin threw the towel over Hyunjin’s cocky smirk, faking a frustrated scoff. “Happy now? Shower. You’re sweaty.”

Hyunjin only hummed as he took the towel in his hands. He winked at Seungmin before turning around and running to the shower room, taking his gym bag with him.

Jeongin laughed as he gave Seungmin a bottle of water. “I still can’t believe you two got together.”

Seungmin smiled, more to himself, as he opened the water bottle. He exhaled, “Yeah. Me, too.”

Felix comes back from where he was talking with the basketball team’s couch, a big grin on his face as he reaches his friends. As the team captain’s boyfriend, Felix has long-since self-claimed the privilege of being friends with the couch. “Okay! Their couch said that he set up a party for the team and _we_ have to get the cake!”

Jeongin and Seungmin looked at each other before exchanging nods. Seungmin sipped on his water bottle, “Okay. Let’s go.”

* * *

When Seungmin, Felix, and Jeongin reach the restaurant, they’re led to the function room that their couch reserved. The restaurant gave them a small table with wheels to carry the cake in, and Jeongin made sure that the cake was placed properly so that it wouldn’t fall whilst Felix wheeled the cake inside.

“Room service!” Jeongin chirped as he knocked on the door of the function room.

Seungmin’s brow twitched in confusion, but Felix’s laugh made him dismiss the thought. The door opens, and Felix instantly beams when they realize that it was Changbin.

“Hey!” Changbin smiled. His eyes landed on the cake in the middle of the trio and he laughed, stepping aside to give them space to enter. “Wow, that’s a big cake.”

“We have to feed our growing boys, don’t we, coach?” Felix said as he entered first. The basketball team hailed and applauded at the sight of the two layered cake.

“Cake! Cake!” the rowdy boys cheered as Changbin was handed a knife to distribute slices to everyone.

Seungmin takes two slices and walks over to where Hyunjin was seated, placing the plates on the table before sitting next to him. Hyunjin pouted as he looked at the smiling Seungmin. “You said you were going to stay there but after I showered, you were gone.”

Seungmin laughed at the boy’s playful whines as he took a small part of Hyunjin’s cake with his fork and raised it to his lips. “I’m sorry, honey. Coach’s orders.”

Hyunjin narrows his eyes at Seungmin mischievously. Before Seungmin can question the flash of mischief, he feels his hand move. Hyunjin opens his mouth as a soft touch pushes the forkful of cake into Hyunjin’s mouth instead of Seungmin’s.

Hyunjin smiled happily as he chewed the chocolate chiffon and Seungmin can only shake his head as he watched. “That’s such a foul.”

“Aww, my boyfriend is so sweet.” Hyunjin grinned as he leaned forward to Seungmin, but the hero leaned back. Hyunjin pouts again, and Seungmin is pushed forward as Hyunjin kisses his nose.

“Jin!” Seungmin yowled with a small pout.

Hyunjin laughed as he took the fork from Seungmin’s hand and took a forkful of cake from his plate.

“Okay, okay. I’ll stop. Ahh~” Hyunjin chuckled as he placed the fork in front of Seungmin’s lips. Seungmin kept his mouth closed until Hyunjin raised an eyebrow. Fearing for another one of Hyunjin’s telekinetic tricks, he opened his mouth and let Hyunjin feed him the cake.

After the lunch, Hyunjin and Seungmin parted from the others. They were seated on the bus stop, hands laced together as they waited for their bus to arrive so that they could go to Seungmin’s unit.

Seungmin hummed as he lifted his head from where it was resting on Hyunjin’s shoulder. “Hey, I have a question.”

“What is it?” Hyunjin asked as he moved their hands from between their thighs to on his lap. He placed his other hand under their’s, enveloping Seungmin’s hand in both of his. Seungmin’s heart fluttered at the warmth, smiling when he saw the concentration on Hyunjin’s face on his task of playing with his fingers.

“How did you know?” Seungmin asked the question that has been picking at his thoughts for weeks. “That it was me? Did you know from the start?”

Hyunjin nodded, his eyes not leaving their hands. “Yeah. I didn’t want to go around the city wearing a mask, but you made me do it.”

“ _I_ made you?” Seungmin asked, his voice was filled with confusion and his brows were furrowed.

Hyunjin nodded. “Yeah. I don’t know if you remember it, but it was a week before you met Haze. I think Shift was in a fight with CB, late at night. I was walking home from basketball practice, and you...”

Seungmin didn’t show it, but he remembered what Hyunjin was talking about. He remembered watching Shift and CB running around in the air— CB flying and Shift as an owl— as he watched boredly atop a rooftop. He remembered the scared skip in his heart when CB aimed lower than he should and one of his lasers went straight to a boy walking home.

He remembered making time stop as he jumped down the rooftop and rushed to the boy, pushing him to the wall before the seconds started ticking again.

_“Are you alright?” he asked as he met Hyunjin’s wide eyes. He had the boy pinned to the wall by his shoulders, and the nervous skip in his heart hasn’t calmed yet. He looks to where Hyunjin was standing a second ago and saw where the laser beam that would have hit him disappeared into the sidewalk and left a nasty burn mark in its wake. He also saw the street lamp’s light a couple of feet away from them flicker before shining brightly again as if it wasn’t on the verge of short-circuiting. He didn't remember CB's lasers being that powerful, but right now, he was worried about Hyunjin._

_Hyunjin nodded, and Tempo sighed in relief. He removed his hands from the boy’s shoulders and ruffled his hair as he took a step back, giving them both space to breathe. He inhaled deeply, willing his heart to calm down now that his friend was safe from any danger. He looks at Hyunjin, trying not to make it obvious that they knew each other._

_“It’s late. You should be home.” he said as a gust of wind blew around them. Tempo ruffled his hair again, trying to keep it out of his eyes but at the same time not sweeping it up his forehead._

_He looked at Hyunjin, realizing that he must have been out late because of basketball practice. He stops the small smile from forming on his face at the thought of Hyunjin in the basketball court._

_He feels a sharp but subtle pang in his chest when he registers the confusion in Hyunjin’s eyes, but he couldn’t blame him. One second, he was walking home and minding his own business, and the next, he’s pushed against the wall by a random superhero._

_Hyunjin is quiet as he took a deep breath and a small flicker of understanding filled his eyes. Tempo dismissed it as him catching his breath from what would have happened if CB’s lasers hit him. Tempo blinked and turned to the fighting duo, a small scowl on his face._

_“Can you two at least make sure you don’t hit anyone?!” he yelled as he sprinted away from the still frozen boy and made his way to the highest rooftop in the area so that he could be nearer to them._

Hyunjin lifted his head and smiled softly at Seungmin. “You pushed me away from one of CB’s laser. You asked me if I was okay, and I nodded. Then you did that cute little scowl and went to where they were fighting, yelling about being careful and things like that.”

“How did you know it was me?” Seungmin asked. If Hyunjin could figure it out, then who else could?

Hyunjin’s smile shifted, turned even softer. “I had my suspicions for a while. But only that you were like me, that you had powers. But that interaction with Tempo...”

One of Hyunjin’s hands leave Seungmin’s as Hyunjin places it on Seungmin’s nape and gently pulls him closer. Hyunjin buried his nose in his hair, inhaling the scent of the hero’s hair before pulling away and kissing his forehead. “it was a windy night, so the strawberries lingered in the air.”

Seungmin felt his face heat up. He probably looked like a strawberry himself. He smiled, shaking his head as he turned away from Hyunjin. “I can’t believe that’s all it took to give me away.”

Hyunjin tittered and placed Seungmin’s head on his shoulder before placing his hand back on his lap to play with Seungmin’s fingers. “It must be that I always look at you, that’s why I noticed.”

Seungmin shrugged as he turned his head to place his chin on Hyunjin’s shoulder. He kissed the boy’s cheek before turning away again. “I’m glad it was you, then.”

Their bus arrives and Seungmin pulls Hyunjin to his feet, dragging the tired boy inside the bus.

“Come on! When we get home, I’ll make you tea then you can sleep.” Seungmin said as he sat down and patter the seat next to him as he smiled up at Hyunjin.

Hyunjin smiled as he sat next to Seungmin. “Okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and that's a wrap! thank you so so much for reading, I can't begin to express the gratitude I have for all of you for reading and supporting this story *^^* I'm going to miss writing this but I know I'm giving them the best ending I can muster HHHHH
> 
> find me on my [twitter](https://twitter.com/markeu_tuan93), [curious cat](https://curiouscat.qa/water_lili_es), [wattpad](https://www.wattpad.com/user/GirlDreamcatcher1123), and [youtube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGfueuIgLVf0o1FNOllA18g)!!!


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